How to make Adelaide carbon neutral

Engineering company Siemens has released a report outlining key technologies that could support Adelaide in becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral city and, in the process, potentially generate thousands of full-time jobs.

Siemens’ City Performance Tool provides an integrated simulation IT platform to forecast the impact of urban infrastructure technologies. The tool helps city managers and planners identify areas of greatest need and effectiveness for better resource allocation, with Dr Roland Busch, a member of the Siemens managing board, saying that smarter use of data helps inform cities as they make sustained and targeted investments to improve city infrastructure.

The tool was used to evaluate over 700 data inputs from the population, transportation networks, commercial and residential buildings, energy networks and over 70 technologies currently being used in Adelaide. Key findings of the study are:

1. Investments in the building, transport and energy sectors can help Adelaide reduce CO₂e emissions by a further 56% by 2025 compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
2. Although investments in renewable energy in the state have been unprecedented, building floor area growth and hence energy demand in the City of Adelaide have offset some of the emission reductions. Therefore, decarbonisation efforts need to span energy, building and transport.
3. The commercial sector remains the largest source of emissions in Adelaide. With new programs such as the introduction of Building Upgrade Finance being rolled out in 2017, the city can benefit from over 15% savings in buildings-related emissions through just five building technologies modelled in this study.
4. The study modelled potential savings in the transport sector based on two scenarios. The first, a mobility future based on low-emission vehicles with medium public transport investment, delivered 47% savings in transport-related emissions. The second, a future with higher public transport/lower uptake of low-emission vehicles, delivered over 38% savings in transport-related emissions.
5. Cutting emissions by 56% over the next decade has the equivalent gross employment opportunities of 23,000 full-time jobs in installation, operation and maintenance in low-carbon energy, public transport mobility and building systems.

Dr Busch said Siemens has “a long and proud history in South Australia” and is “proud help Adelaide transition to the world’s first carbon-neutral city”.

“Adelaide joins leading cities such as San Francisco, Vienna, Copenhagen and London in adopting a holistic approach for prioritising future infrastructure needs based on its long-term economic and environmental goals,” he said.  

“We’ve set an ambitious target to be the world’s first carbon-neutral city, and this report and the right partners will help us get there,” said City of Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese. “Being the world’s first carbon-neutral city is not only an environmental imperative but an economic opportunity of the future.”

The full report can be viewed here.

Image caption: SA Premier Jay Weatherill, City of Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese and Dr Roland Busch.