BRIDGING THE DECARBONISATION GAP

MEANINGFUL DECARBONISATION HAPPENS AT EVERY STAGE OF THE MINING LIFECYCLE. AECOM SHARES WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN RESOURCES INDUSTRY.

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As the resources sector evolves, each stage of the mining lifecycle is looking for ways to reduce emissions and meet sustainability targets.

It's one thing for a resources company to want to decarbonise its operations; it's another to understand and implement appropriate measures to achieve stated emission reduction commitments.

AECOM industrial decarbonisation lead Dane Noble told Australian Mining while the end goal of net-zero operations can be daunting, there are many options that are relatively straight forward and practical to implement whilst being economic with current technology and posing minimal operational impact.

One such example is the procurement of renewable energy via power purchase agreements (PPA) which can significantly reduce emissions associated with an operations' or a collective group of assets' electricity supply.

"Renewables are by far the cheapest form of bulk energy in Australia, but the challenge for sites that aren't grid connected is they typically operate from systems powered by traditional fossil fuel-based generation in the form of a diesel or gas fired power station," Noble said.