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https://reneweconomy.com.au/300-billion-not-9-trillion-net-zero-report-authors-put-record-straight-after-nationals-inflate-costs-30-fold/>
"The authors of a much quoted
Net Zero Australia report have – somewhat
belatedly – sought to put the record straight, after the Nationals, and others,
predictably used their headline grabbing $9 trillion costings to end their
support for the policy.
The
Net Zero Australia report was released in 2023 by Melbourne University,
the University of Queensland, and the Nous Group, and deliberately played up
the $9 trillion in an attempt to grab media attention.
It worked, and the number has predictably been used by naysayers to repeatedly
bash the federal and state governments over the cost of net zero policies.
But now the authors have decided to point out – more clearly than they ever did
in the original document – that the real additional costs of reaching net zero
are a tiny fraction of that number, in fact 30 times smaller, at just $300
billion spread over 25 years.
But it’s probably too late to bother.
The Nationals a few days ago officially dropped their support for net zero by
2050 as a policy goal – ignoring the overwhelming climate science that supports
it – and have used the same
Net Zero Australia report as a basis for their
argument.
“It’s going to cost $9 trillion,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said
this week on
Nine, and just about everywhere else.
As
Renew Economy pointed out at the time, that $9 trillion figure includes
spending on business as usual, including the purchase of family cars –
eventually electric – that were all grouped together to make a big scary,
headline grabbing number.
Which may have been deliberate, given that the study was sponsored by companies
with significant fossil fuel interests.
Now the universities that have decided they have had enough of the report being
“misrepresented” and pointed out that the additional cost of reaching net zero
by 2050 is actually $300 billion, not $9 trillion, and it will be spread over
the next 25 years, and nor will it be a direct cost to consumers."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
