Addressing Australia’s energy and transport future now

In the first meeting of its kind, Australian industry, government, scientific, community and environmental groups will today come together to discuss the nation’s energy and transport future.

Participants of Australia’s Energy Futures Forum, holding it first full meeting in Canberra today, will begin the process of determining plausible scenarios and implications for the nation’s energy and transport future out to 2050.

Initiated by the CSIRO’s ’Energy Transformed’ National Research Flagship, the Forum will use an innovative approach to energy modelling. “It will integrate technology development, economics and environmental considerations as well as social attitudes”, Dr John Wright, Director of the Energy Transformed Flagship, said.

Participants include a broad spectrum of industry and community groups – all of whom have a shared interest in exploring alternative future pathways for Australia’s energy and transport industries. “It has taken many months of hard work and negotiations to assemble the Forum, which includes 21 leading Australian organisations. This kind of national collaboration is what CSIRO’s Flagships are about and we are excited to be the catalyst for such an important initiative”, Dr Wright said.

The Energy Futures Forum has been jointly developed by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) and CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship program with the support of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. It will run for a period of 18 months, allowing time to apply appropriate rigour to the modelling process.

Today’s inaugural meeting is the first step on a long path to determine up to ten plausible energy scenarios out to 2050. Scenario building and subsequent modelling will offer individual participants a unique tool to enable rigorous and insightful strategic planning and inform policy development that will benefit all Australians.