COP28: Natural gas to be backup in Australia's path to 82% renewable power by 2030: minister

Natural gas will play the role of a backup in Australia's course to have 82% renewable power in the electricity grids by 2030, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Dec. 13 as the UN Climate Change Conference concluded in Dubai, pledging to transition away from fossil fuels.

Australia's energy transition strategy will be aligned with global directions as enunciated at COP28 where world leaders agreed to a final text of the global stocktake, which included "transitioning away" from fossil fuels and working "toward the phasedown" of unabated coal.

"The virtue of gas is that [it] can turn on and off real quickly... if you've got gas-fired peakers backing up your 82% renewable system that are only turned on rarely... that is a big step forward for emissions reduction," Bowen said at a press conference.

Fossil fuels contributed 68% of total electricity generation in 2022, including coal (47%), gas (19%) and oil (2%), data from Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) showed.

Coal's share of electricity generation has declined from 83% in 1999-2000 while the shares of natural gas and renewables has increased, the data showed.

Renewables contributed 32% of total electricity generation in 2022, the data showed.

Bowen said Australia's fossil fuel producers must "read the text" from COP28's decisions in order to get pointers for the future of the industry.

"This is the first time that fossil fuels have ever been mentioned in a COP decision," Bowen said. "That is no small thing. It sends a signal to the world's markets, investors and businesses that this is the direction of travel for countries right around the world."

At COP28, countries agreed to contribute to "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science," according to the final global stocktake draft text.

Umbrella group

At the closing statement of The Umbrella Group -- a coalition of nations including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US where Australia is the Chair -- Bowen said the group supports phase out of fossil fuels of energy systems by 2050.

Iceland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Norway and Ukraine are the other members of The Umbrella Group.

"The discussions at Dubai... has led to important milestones in our work to combat the climate crisis," Bowen said. "We came together in solidarity at the beginning of this conference to agree to groundbreaking work on loss and damage."

We have agreed to an ambitious new framework on the global goal on adaptation, which is very important, it elevates the role of adaptation, with globally applicable targets that lay out a direction of travel and galvanize action and support, he said.

At COP28, Australia joined at least 39 countries in the Clean Energy Transition Partnership, including US, UK , Canada and Fiji to align international investment strategies with net-zero priorities.

Australia also joined 124 countries alongside other major energy exporters the US, Canada, Norway and others, to triple global renewable energy generation capacity and double global average annual energy efficiency improvements by 2030.

Australia's total grid level power emissions is seen at 144.69 million mtCO2e in 2023 to 98.50 mtCo2e in 2030, data from S&P Global Commodity Insights showed.