Register      Login
Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Measuring change in the race to deliver net zero

Clare Anderson A * , Paul Ebert B and Chris Greig C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Worley, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.

B Worley, London, UK.

C Andlinger Center for Energy & the Environment, Princeton University, NJ, USA.

* Correspondence to: clare.anderson@worley.com

The APPEA Journal 63 S32-S35 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22161
Accepted: 6 February 2023   Published: 11 May 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.

Abstract

Worley and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment have been exploring what it will take to deliver the infrastructure necessary to get to the world to net zero by mid-century. We have proposed a new delivery paradigm comprising five shifts in the way we work to meet the challenge of scale and speed. This new paradigm encompasses broadening how value is defined, keeping technology options open, designing one and building many, communicating and collaborating, and enabling and monitoring digitally. In our most recent work, we have turned our attention to measuring and tracking the uptake of this new paradigm by participants in the net-zero infrastructure delivery ecosystem. We propose that to be successful in achieving net zero by mid-century, these five shifts need to be widely adopted by 2030 and to track this, we have developed a set of leading indicators, which we call the indicators of change. Through an annual survey, conducted by Princeton, we will measure year on year just how well implementation of these shifts is tracking. In this paper, we examine the indicators of change in the context of the Australian Oil and Gas Industry. We draw on the results of Net Zero Australia to demonstrate where the opportunities exist for oil and gas. We review where the Australian Oil and Gas Industry is now, where it needs to be by 2026 and what success looks like in 2030 to be a key player in the energy transition.

Keywords: annual survey, decarbonisation, delivery, infrastructure, measurement, metrics, net-zero, oil and gas.

Dr Clare Anderson is the Director Sustainability Performance for Worley. Clare has a PhD in chemical engineering and has worked primarily in the oil and gas industry providing project and engineering management across all phases of project development in Europe, South Africa and Australia. She is a former Director of the Australian Institute of Energy and currently sits on the advisory panel of Net Zero Australia (NZAust).

Dr Paul Ebert is the Group Director Sustainability & Energy Transition Leadership for Worley. Paul’s career has mostly followed the rise of renewable energy following a PhD in wind turbine aerodynamics, although has broadened to include other technologies and integration of lower emissions options into the more complex industries. Paul is a former Chair of ARENA’s Advisory Panel, and sits on similar panels for NZAust, CSIRO and ANU.

Dr Chris Greig is the Theodora D. and William H. Walton III Senior Research Scientist at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy & the Environment and co-led the Net-Zero America study. With a PhD in chemical engineering, he is a fellow of ATSE and is an adjunct professor at UQ. He has extensive industry experience, as a company founder and senior executive and non-executive roles in major engineering and resource companies.


References

Anderson C, Greig C, Ebert P (2021) From Ambition to Reality: Weaving the thread of net-zero delivery. (Joint publication of Worley and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment of Princeton University)

Anderson C, Greig C, Ebert P (2022) From Ambition to Reality 2: Measuring change in the race to deliver net zero. (Joint publication of Worley and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment of Princeton University)

Ebert P, Anderson C, Greig C (2022) The infrastructure of net zero: a unique challenge for Australia. The APPEA Journal 62, S251–S255.
The infrastructure of net zero: a unique challenge for Australia.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

IPCC (2021) ‘Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.’ Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK and New York, USA)

Jenkins JD, Mayfield EN, Larson ED, Pacala SW, Greig C (2021) Mission net-zero America: the nation-building path to a prosperous, net-zero emissions economy. Joule 5, 2755–2761.
Mission net-zero America: the nation-building path to a prosperous, net-zero emissions economy.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Larson E, Greig C, Jenkins J, Mayfield E, Pascale A, Zhang C, Drossman J, Williams R, Pacala S, Socolow R, Baik EJ, Birdsey R, Duke R, Jones R, Haley B, Leslie E, Paustian K, Swan A (2021) ‘Net-Zero America: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts.’ (Princeton University: Princeton, NJ)

Net Zero Australia (NZAus) (2022) Interim Results, August 2022. Available at https://www.netzeroaustralia.net.au/interim-results/