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AAP
AAP
Politics
Dominic Giannini

Call to bring forward net-zero to future-proof economy

An abundance of sun, wind, water and land will help Australia become a renewable energy powerhouse. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Australia's net-zero emissions target needs to be brought forward to 2035 to avoid economic and environmental ruin, leading scientists warn.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering believes the bold call is achievable due to advances in technology.

Opportunities include using Australia's vast critical mineral deposits which are a key component of renewable technologies like batteries, CEO Kylie Walker said. 

The value of critical minerals is set to increase exponentially in the coming decades. 

An abundance of sun, wind, water and land space were all also touted as economic opportunities for Australia to take advantage of in its bid to become a renewable energy powerhouse.

"You'd be a foolish sector to not see what's coming and not prepare to take advantage of that and actually grow rather than fall off a cliff," Ms Walker told AAP. 

The private sector would also leverage some of the investment, taking away the need for the government to stump up for all the upfront costs, she said.

The federal opposition is urging caution over the economic cost and energy insecurity brought about by fast-tracking renewables.

But it would help future-proof the economy and energy grid from increasing natural disasters spurred by climate change and a global move away from fossil fuels, academy president Katherine Woodthorpe said. 

"A lot of our economy has been based on digging up fossil fuels and people won't be buying them from us anymore," she said. 

"The bottom line is a lot of our economy will just fly out the window in the next 20 years ... and if we don't build for that, then we will have squandered the opportunity."

Australia already had access to mature enough technology that would enable the transition and rolling breakthroughs made them more efficient and provided further economic opportunities, she said.

Electric vehicles could travel 600km on a single charge while a new electric truck had just gone 1600km.

Houses could be made to be more energy efficient while new additives are helping bring down methane emissions in the agriculture sector. 

Upgraded technology and battery breakthroughs could provide hours of dispatchable energy at night, Dr Woodthorpe said.

"So, all these clever lines that people drop, like the sun doesn't shine all the time - we have the technologies to fill those gaps."

Equating the economy and environment as competing interests was also a false dichotomy, Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions director Professor Mark Howden said.

He pointed to a number of countries where emissions reductions were coupled with economic advantages.

This was before the economic costs of increasingly worse and more frequent bushfires, drought, floods and health impacts were accounted for, Dr Woodthorpe said.

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