Australia’s big emitters could cut CO2 by 90% by 2050 without offsets, report finds

Some of Australia’s largest heavy industrial companies have backed a report that says they could cut direct greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains by more than 90% by 2050, and not have to rely heavily on carbon offsets.

The report, by the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI), prepared over three years by Climateworks Centre and the CSIRO, found the industrial transition would cost the equivalent of $21bn a year over three decades if Australia were to play its part in trying to limit global heating to 1.5C.

It has landed during a political debate over the safeguard mechanism, the Coalition policy that the Albanese government says it wants to revamp to reduce the CO2 emitted by Australia’s 215 biggest polluting industrial facilities. The Greens have offered to support Labor’s plan if it agrees not to approve any more coal and gas mines, a step the government says it will not take.

The report, Pathways to industrial decarbonisation, looked at five major supply chains for industries – including iron, steel, aluminium, chemicals and liquified natural…