Can Australia be a Renewable Energy Superpower?

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• Author: Ingrid Burfurd
• Date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12582

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 401–412 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12582

Policy Forum

Can Australia be a Renewable Energy Superpower?

Ingrid Burfurd*

Abstract

Current trade patterns reflect the low cost of

transporting carbon‐intensive fossil fuels. But

renewable energy is expensive to transport. In

a world moving to net‐zero emissions,

Australia can capitalise on its abundant

renewable energy resource to process and

export green minerals and fuels. With the

right policy settings, Australia could not only

meet its own international commitments to

reach net‐zero carbon emissions by 2050, but

it could make a significant contribution to the

global reduction in emissions, and prosper in

the process.

1. The Superpower Opportunity

Thank you for the invitation to join you on the

lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Eastern

Kulin nations.

This evening I want to convince you that

Australia can be a renewable energy superpower.

By ‘superpower’, I mean that Australia can not

only meet its own international commitments to

reach net‐zero carbon emissions by 2050, but that

it can make a significant contribution to the

globalreductioninemissions,andthatitcan

prosper in the process. In fact, the global

transition to ‘net‐zero’creates remarkable eco-

nomic opportunities for Australia—achanceto

raise productivity and living standards by

capitalising on its comparative advantage in a

net‐zero world.

It is important that I convince you, because

there are competing narratives about which

economic and climate change policies are in

Australia's interest. My hope is that economists

will contribute to the public debate, and advocate

for policies that improve the standard of living

for this and future generations.

I will start by providing some political and

economic context for my analysis, and then lay

out the ‘superpower’thesis. I will then propose

policies to advance the superpower goal, before

wrapping up with a quick assessment of

Australia's recent Federal Budget and whether it

moves the nation in the right direction.

2. The International Political and

Economic Context

The last time Australia considered climate

change policies with economy‐wide implications

* The Superpower Institute, Victoria, Australia; email

<ingrid.burfurd@superpowerinstitute.com.au>

The author thanks Ross Garnaut, Rod Sims, Baethan

Mullen, and Reuben Finighan for their many contribu-

tions to this speech. The author acknowledges that

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been

the custodians of these unceded lands for tens of

thousands of years.

© 2024 The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, Faculty of Business

and Economics.

Published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd