Transition to Net Zero – emissions pathways and managing carbon

Understanding carbon trends is the key to Australia reaching Net Zero. Currently, there is a large gap between Australia’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 and available information on the possible pathways to get there, particularly on the evolution of biospheric carbon sources and sinks.

Initially, the project will construct a comprehensive carbon budget for Australia, documenting all major natural and anthropogenic sources and sinks, including coastal ecosystems (blue carbon). This information will support improvements in carbon accounting and contribute to the development of global budgets of greenhouse gases led by the Global Carbon Project. We will use climate models to study how driving mechanisms such as warming, rainfall change, increased CO2, fire, land-use change, and inter-annual variability, affect the evolution of biospheric carbon sinks in Australia under different climate change scenarios.

This work will improve the understanding of the carbon storage potential of the terrestrial biosphere as key contributors to balancing Australia’s carbon budget in supporting a transition to Net Zero. It will also provide information to improve the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and contribute to improved understanding of the global and remaining carbon budgets as contributions to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake.

Want to know more?

Please contact the project lead: Pep Canadell, CSIRO