CANBERRA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government will build a new gas-fired power station despite international pressure to abandon fossil fuels.
The announcement was made one day after the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a roadmap to global net zero emissions by 2050.
Angus Taylor, the minister for energy and emissions reduction, on Wednesday announced that the Australian government will spend 600 million Australian dollars (467.4 million U.S. dollars) building the plant in New South Wales' Hunter Valley.
Taylor said the project would create 600 jobs in the region and guarantee a supply of affordable and reliable energy for New South Wales (NSW) after the nearby Liddell coal-fired power station is shut down in 2023.
"Cheap power is crucial to ensuring families, businesses and job-creating industries in NSW can thrive, which is why we are committed to replacing the energy generated by Liddell to keep prices down," he said.
The new plant will have a generation capacity of 660 megawatts (MW).
The IEA warned that achieving the target would require "nothing short of a total transformation of the energy systems that underpin our economies."
The report said there was a "narrow and extremely challenging" pathway to net zero emissions that would require advanced economies including Australia to have net-zero electricity grids by 2035.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously said that "our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050." But Australia has not joined more than 100 countries in committing to the goal despite pressure from world leaders to do so.
"This gap between rhetoric and action needs to close if we are to have a fighting chance of reaching net zero by 2050 and limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in the report.
"Our pathway requires vast amounts of investment, innovation, skilful policy design and implementation, technology deployment, infrastructure building, international co‐operation and efforts across many other areas."
According to a study published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency on Wednesday, emissions-heavy industries such as mining and manufacturing could work together to produce critical resources needed for renewable energy such as lithium and silicon.
"Australia's future economic prosperity will depend on how well we can use our vast energy and mineral resources to play to our strengths and create new opportunities through the global transition to net zero emissions," Larry Marshall, the chief executive of the CSIRO, said in a media release. Enditem
