Over the Horizon Investment Opportunities
Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage With implementation of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and other countries developing similar programs to measure demonstration of supply chains towards net zero, demand for carbon credits will surge. In Australia carbon credits trades in Australia takes place through the acquisition of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) which typically involves the entering into carbon credit offtake agreements. There is an increase in online trading platforms for carbon credits and with that comes the opportunity to develop carbon sequestration programs. Rural Western Australia is profoundly positioned to take advantage of these sequestration opportunities. Bio-sequestration via terrestrial reforestation, carbon farming, blue carbon (marine growth of mangroves, seagrass and seaweed), geo-sequestration (underground CO2, storage, including within exhausted oil and gas fields), and developing industrial symbiosis processes by taking waste streams and making products, such as concrete, without cement. 25 The following are some initiatives already underway: • INPEX, ANZ and Qantas signed 26 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to evaluate a new carbon farming and renewable biofuels project in the Wheatbelt region. • Carbon farming initiatives are helping WA’s agriculture sector adapt farming systems in the face of climate change and improve long-term business viability. • As of June 2022, the Forest Products Commission (FPC) has been granted the right to trade in carbon assets under new legislation. This will now allow the FPC the right to own, trade and otherwise deal with carbon assets. 27 Green Metals As with recent investments to move WA up the global energy metals and battery value chain, there is an analogous opportunity for the State to grow and diversify economically by moving up the iron ore value chain through investing in green iron ore beneficiation and steel making. The potential economic upside is considerable, given WA exports some 900mtpa of iron from areas enjoying premium solar gain globally and creating potential in hematite and magnetite producing regions. This is an opportunity to generate new, Net Zero carbon commerce that reduces the 7% impact of steelmaking on global greenhouse gas emissions. 28 A recent WA Government decision to give lead agency status to several green hydrogen projects demonstrates the scale of the opportunity and the commitment of government. These operations have the potential to produce a local hydrogen feedstock that replaces coal in the most mature green iron beneficiation process. It should be noted that other green steel technologies are also under development. Carbon inputs necessary for steel production can be sourced from biochar pyrolysis (burning in
25 26
CarbiCrete casts blocks using slag waste from steel production and locking it in with CO2.
March 2022 signing with first plantings in winter 2023.
27 https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2022/06/New-legislation-to-enable-carbon-trading-by-Forest- Products-Commission-passes-through-State-Parliament.aspx 28 https://theconversation.com/green-steel-is-hailed-as-the-next-big-thing-in-australian-industry-heres-what-the-hype-is-all-about-160282
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