Let’s seize the decade! 

Our plan to empower Australian communities and cut climate pollution by 75 percent this decade.

Australia’s shift to clean energy is well underway – visible on our rooftops, in our homes, neighbourhoods and businesses. This not only cuts climate pollution, but also helps families reduce the costs of living, makes businesses more competitive and creates good jobs and new investment in our regions.

But we still have a long way to go, and moving too slowly is dangerous. Digging up and burning coal, oil and gas is blanketing our planet in heat-trapping pollution that supercharges extreme weather. Australians are already weathering ‘climate whiplash’, as we’re hurtled from flooding rains to scorching heatwaves and catastrophic bushfires, and back again. The only solution is to end climate pollution as quickly as we can.

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Today’s decisions are shaping the kind of world our kids inherit. The choices our political and industry leaders make now will define how much the lives of today’s young people are endangered and disrupted, and whether we can build the clean industries that create good, ongoing jobs and prosperity.

Our plan: an overview

How we’ll power ourselves

How we’ll get around

How we’ll make things

How we’ll build things

How we’ll care for our land

How you can help

How we build a clean economy to power our lives, set up Aussie communities and our kids for success, and end climate pollution.

This is what our kids will talk about. The choices we make today that define how safe or scary the world becomes as they grow up. The decisions taken to grow clean industries, which shape their job market. The steps we take to make life easier for them, or so much tougher. 

Solutions are well underway in Australia, but so is the climate crisis. That’s why we need a plan that spells out how, by using proven technologies that are available today, we can cut climate pollution further and faster this decade, for our kids’ sake.

For the first time in Australia’s history, we have that plan.

How we’ll power ourselves:

More Clean Energy

Today, more than 40% of the electricity in our main electricity grid is made up of clean sources of power like the sun and wind. This powers our lives and economy without producing climate pollution. 

By the end of this decade, we can power our lives with a bigger national grid with 94% renewables, and shift almost entirely away from polluting electricity sources. 

Our plan means millions more Australian families and businesses can save money with rooftop solar, backed by batteries and large-scale renewable projects.

To seize the decade, we need to:

Empower households

Put power directly into the hands of households and save them money, with rooftop solar systems on four million more homes (totalling 24 GW). 

Lay the energy foundation for new clean industries

Keep growing large-scale renewable capacity to meet our energy needs and start building up a grid that can support clean export industries in the years ahead.

Shore up clean energy supply

Provide clean and reliable electricity 24/7 with 24 GW of new storage, by installing two million household batteries and 5,000 community batteries.

Cut climate and air pollution

With replacements in place, end coal-fired power generation by 2030 and continue phasing out polluting gas in the following years.

Electrify our buildings

In parallel with the roll out in rooftop solar and batteries, we can electrify most existing Australian homes and workplaces using efficient electric appliances and we can make all new buildings all-electric.

Find our full plan for powering ourselves with renewable energy backed by storage here

How we’ll get around:

Clean up transport

More Aussie drivers own electric vehicles than ever before, and many people who live in or near capital cities enjoy walking, riding, rolling or using shared transport to get to where they need to go. Whenever people get around or move things using polluting fuels like petrol and diesel, both climate and air pollution get worse. 

We can halve transport pollution by giving city residents better travel choices, and moving goods in ways that pollute less. We’ll breathe easier as we do so. By shifting more trips to shared and active options, and electrifying more vehicles, we can cut pollution, enjoy quieter and cleaner neighbourhoods, and make our roads safer for people walking and riding. 

To seize the decade, we need to:

Boost shared and active travel

Create healthier communities by shifting existing kilometres travelled by private car to shared and active transport at a rate of about 5% a year, plus all growth in passenger travel, this decade.

Go electric

Electrify our passenger fleet to see one-third of all passenger kilometres travelled by electric vehicles by 2030, by prioritising vehicles that travel most like taxis, rideshare vehicles and government fleets.

Shift freight

Shift one-third of road freight to rail by 2030 by increasing its use for packaged freight, and electrifying more heavy vehicles so 17% of all road freight is moved in cleaner ways by 2030.

Find our full plan for how we’ll get around here

How we’ll build things:

Modernise industry

The job and economic opportunities for Australia abound, as countries the world over cut climate pollution.Businesses in Australia have a competitive edge, because we have some of the most abundant solar and wind resources in the world. But we’re not the only country eyeing off these opportunities. If we don’t seize our advantages now we risk being left behind as other countries make huge investments in new infrastructure, technology and energy to grow these emerging industries.

We can build a mining and manufacturing sector that’s fit for the 21st century, creating good jobs in clean industries that set up our kids for success and can power our prosperity for generations to come.

To seize the decade, we need to:

Adopt smarter ways of making

Adapt manufacturing and mining to use renewable energy and industrial inputs where possible, and improve energy efficiency by 5% for iron, steel and chemical manufacturers, and 25% for cement.

Recycle and reuse

Prioritise collection and recycling of scrap metals, with a goal of seeing 35% of steel production and 40% of aluminium come from recycled materials.

Grow clean industries

Build industries that capitalise on our rich natural resources and clean power, like green metals manufacturing and critical mineral processing, and stop approving new coal mines or expansions that only add more climate pollution.

Find our full plan for how we’ll make things here

How we’ll care for our land:

Better care for our land

The way we care for our environment, how we grow food and how we deal with waste can help reduce and store climate pollution, or release more of it. This calls for new and better solutions, so we can keep growing food, while restoring and protecting our natural environment and providing all Australians with access to improved organic and food waste management.

Over this decade, we can halve the amount of climate pollution produced by our agricultural sector. We can work towards creating a closed loop between sources and sinks of pollution, and we can develop policies so that the land sector stores more emissions than it releases.

To seize the decade, we need to:

Protect the environment

Avoid releasing more climate pollution by ending native forest logging, and phasing out land clearing.

Support farmers

Back in the roll-out of modern farming techniques – from feedlot additives to managing manure emissions to slow-release fertilisers – so we cut agricultural emissions by around 4-5 Mt CO2e a year by 2030. 

Empower communities

Improve access to and management of food and organic waste across the country.

Find our full plan for how we’ll care for land here

Want to learn more?

Watch our Seize the Decade webinar, where our expert panel unpacked how Australia can use available, and proven technologies to cut carbon pollution this decade, and how you can get involved! 

Donate today to seize the decade and build a brighter future for our kids

Help turn this plan into action!

Our plan shows how we can cut climate pollution three times faster than current government plans each year to 2030.

Your donation will fund our climate science, advocacy, policy, media and communications experts to:

There’s no time to waste. Our kids are depending on us. 

Donate today to seize the decade and build a brighter future for our kids

This is a clear plan for how Australia can build out renewable energy and clean industries tosafeguard our future.

Together, we can empower communities and keep working to end climate pollution. Let’s seize this decade!

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The Climate Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, meet and work. We wish to pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognise the continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to land, water and Country.