Australia promotes biofuels growth to help fight climate change

Bioenergy could contribute around A$10 billion ($7 billion) to Australia's economy by 2030, the government said on Friday, as it laid out a plan to promote biofuels to help the country reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Bioenergy, which includes turning organic waste and crop waste into fuel, currently makes up about 3 per cent of Australia's total energy consumption and could grow to provide up to 20 per cent by the 2050s, but production costs would have to fall to achieve that, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) said.

The industry could create 26,200 jobs and help reduce emissions by about 9 per cent from 2019 levels by the 2030s, ARENA said.

With A$33.5 million in new funding, ARENA set out a plan to back projects which could show where biofuels would have a comparative advantage and identify barriers to development biofuels.

The government highlighted that industrial heat generation, aviation and marine fuels and renewable gas are among sectors where carbon emissions are hard to abate, offering market potential for biofuels.– Reuters