Globally many countries have committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and their dependence on fossil fuels with most large emitting countries now committing to “net-zero” targets sometime in the second half of this century and earlier intermediate targets in 2030. With only 6 years to go until the deadline to meet 2030 emission reduction targets what is the verdict? How are Australian and global emission reduction projects tracking?
World electricity demand in 2022 was 28,500 TWh with 39.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted in the same year as a result. The global energy mix hasn’t changed much: Fossil fuel consumption as a percentage of primary energy in 2022 remained steady at 82% and in July 2023 the International Energy Agency projected 2023 oil demand to be 102.1 million barrels a day, an all-time high.
This paper will take a look at decarbonization efforts around the world and provide an overview of what was targeted in previous years and compare it with what has actually been achieved.
How far are we truly on the road to decarbonization? Are decarbonization initiatives including Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, hydrogen projects, solar and wind farms providing the intended results?
Incorporating recent key regulatory initiatives from governments around the world including the US, Australia and the EU, this paper will outline progress to date and attempt to show possible paths going forward in answering the question whether it is possible to achieve the proposed emission reduction targets in 6 years.

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the push for energy transition in Australia. Carbon prices have been introduced through the Safeguard Mechanism and Australian Carbon Credit Units. Consumers of hydrocarbon products are beginning to demand carbon neutral products. Oil and gas operators are pledging net-zero emissions targets. The decarbonisation efforts that ensue are expected to drive a paradigm shift in upstream development approaches. In this work, we investigate how an anonymized high CO2 gas field may be developed under prevailing carbon prices. We identify four project archetypes and estimate recoverable resources under each project; we also analyse the economic performance of each project. In the first archetype, we consider a project where CO2 is separated from the produced gas and vented into the atmosphere. In the second archetype, we consider a carbon sequestration project in which CO2 is transported via pipeline for storage in an onshore depleted gas reservoir. Next, we consider a case where CO2 is shipped offshore for storage in a deep saline aquifer. Lastly, we consider a case in which the gas buyer demands a carbon neutral product; as such, we study the feasibility of producing blue hydrogen using the produced gas, and how this impacts project economics and reserves. The case studies show that decarbonisation efforts always negatively impact project economics but are the least objectionable options if carbon prices are high. For the identified project archetypes, carbon prices in Australia are currently insufficient to enable commercial development.

With CCUS technology advancement reaching a point of scalability, there is a desperate need for global regulatory and legislative frameworks to support large-scale commercialisation. With various economies at differing stages of updating their policy and regulatory frameworks, the impact on investment into large-scale CCUS projects is an area worth interrogating to understand whether regulatory certainty has material impact on viability of a CCUS project, or whether the bulk of the project economics are still driven by traditional cost components. This paper seeks to undertake a literature review of current regulatory and policy frameworks such as the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act 2022, the EU Green Deal 2020 and Western Australia’s Barrow Island Act 2013 to undertake a relative comparison of the three leading regulatory policies on large-scale carbon capture and storage. This paper will also undertake a comparison of a theoretical large-scale carbon capture and storage project subject to each type of regulatory condition to estimate the potential impact to project viability in each scenario. The aim of the paper is to understand the magnitude of impact that regulatory policies can have on commercialisation of large-scale CCUS project and seeks to recommend key policy frameworks that would enable significant capital investment required to deploy large-scale CCUS projects. This paper also seeks to identify key areas where the government and industry can collaborate to ensure scalability of projects and capital mobilization efforts are effectively leveraged to help solve the global issue of climate change.

With CCUS technology advancement reaching a point of scalability, there is a desperate need for global regulatory and legislative frameworks to support large-scale commercialisation. With various economies at differing stages of updating their policy and regulatory frameworks, the impact on investment into large-scale CCUS projects is an area worth interrogating to understand whether regulatory certainty has material impact on viability of a CCUS project, or whether the bulk of the project economics are still driven by traditional cost components. This paper seeks to undertake a literature review of current regulatory and policy frameworks such as the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act 2022, the EU Green Deal 2020 and Western Australia’s Barrow Island Act 2013 to undertake a relative comparison of the three leading regulatory policies on large-scale carbon capture and storage. This paper will also undertake a comparison of a theoretical large-scale carbon capture and storage project subject to each type of regulatory condition to estimate the potential impact to project viability in each scenario. The aim of the paper is to understand the magnitude of impact that regulatory policies can have on commercialisation of large-scale CCUS project and seeks to recommend key policy frameworks that would enable significant capital investment required to deploy large-scale CCUS projects. This paper also seeks to identify key areas where the government and industry can collaborate to ensure scalability of projects and capital mobilization efforts are effectively leveraged to help solve the global issue of climate change.

Worley and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment are working together to shift the net zero narrative from what is needed, to how to meet this immense infrastructure delivery challenge. Together, we assert that this challenge cannot be met through a traditional project delivery approach.
We have developed a new delivery paradigm, which identifies five key shifts in infrastructure delivery practices to build the durable, responsible, and pragmatic means of achieving the required scale and speed of mid-century net zero. We believe that the new delivery paradigm needs to be in place by 2030, and an annual survey conducted by Princeton University is tracking the uptake by industry.
The third installment in our thought leadership series “From Ambition to Reality (FATR): Steps to accelerate net zero delivery”, explores the scale of the EU’s 2030 Hydrogen ambition and how the five key shifts could accelerate the delivery of 10 million tonnes per annum of renewable hydrogen in the next six years. This has led to our proposed EU Renewable H2 Plan, which has been further globalized to our 2024 FATR Plan for application to any low carbon sector or supply chain.
In this paper, we examine the initiatives set out in the 2024 FATR Plan in the context of the Australian Oil and Gas Industry. We outline the steps that can be taken right now to support the decarbonization of the Australian Oil and Gas Industry alongside the development of a new hydrogen industry.

Since 2009 successive Australian Commonwealth governments have provided direct funding for CCUS projects; CCS Flagships (Rudd, 2009), CCUS Development Fund (Morrison, 2021). The CCUS Hubs and Technologies Fund (Morrison, 2022) was later revoked (Albanese,2022) marking a shift from direct funding to emission reduction through a strengthening of the Safeguard Mechanism, the introduction of a 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, and the establishment of the Net Zero Authority. Direct funding has been replaced with “regulatory certainty” and recognition “of the role of CCUS” (Minister Bowen, 2023).
While emissions reductions will be met short term through efficiencies and offsets, reports from the Climate Change Authority (“Reduce, remove and store”, 2023), and Net Zero Australia (“How to make net zero happen”, 2023) have delineated the need for, and size of, the role of CCUS in Australia, especially for hard to abate sectors
The WA government aspires for WA to be a world leader in CCUS (Roger Cook remarks, 2023) and includes CCUS in their Future State framework (2023), with planned legislation for onshore GHG geological storage; however only direct funding for pilot projects is available through the Carbon Innovation Grant Program.
As the NetZero Australia report states, “private investment in a CCUS industry requires targeted government support”. Without targeted CCUS funding rounds, other avenues such as the Powering the Regions Fund, Critical Industries list, National Reconstruction Fund and the WA Investment Attraction Fund will need to provide support for CCUS roll out at scale to underpin demand for emissions reduction.