Climateworks Australia was honoured to be a finalist at the 2016 Banksia Awards held in Sydney last night.

The report, Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in 2050: How Australia can prosper in a low carbon world co-lead by Climateworks and ANU with modelling from CSIRO and Centre of Policy Studies was named a finalist in the Communication For Change Award category.

Mr Ferraro said he was pleased the research was assisting government, industry and the wider community to transition to a net zero emissions future.

“Our research shows that Australia can reach net zero emissions by 2050 using existing technology, while still growing the economy,” he said.

“The work shows that decarbonising our energy system relies on four pillars: ambitious energy efficiency, low carbon electricity, switching to low carbon energy sources in transport, buildings and industry, and sequestering the remaining emissions through carbon forestry or carbon capture and storage.

“Already our research has been used to inform a number of key government decision processes at the national and state level.

“We have also developed communication tools to further enhance knowledge and understanding of our research, including an interactive calculator that enables people to explore potential pathways to net zero emissions.”

Mr Ferraro said since the release of the report, Climateworks has participated in a range of collaborations to build capacity, unblock barriers and expedite Australia’s transition to a net zero emissions future.

“Recent projects include our work around the introduction of vehicle emissions standards and electric vehicles, a report exploring the transition to high performance, low carbon buildings and upgrading the minimum performance standards for new buildings,” he said.

NOTE: ClimateWork research is part of the global 2050 Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project, coordinated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.   The global project draws on research and analysis from 16 participating countries, collectively representing more than 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.