Sunny days ahead if trends followed
OVER six months, the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission met weekly to contribute our expertise towards the task of growing the NT economy.
A theme that ran through almost every meeting was that the NT can only prosper and attract investment if it aligns itself with global mega-trends.
Of these, the two most prominent were decarbonisation and digitalisation.
Happily, we found that the Territory is well-placed to take advantage of both.
The NT has amongst the world’s best solar resource.
More sunlight falls more consistently on the Territory than almost anywhere else on Earth.
It is time for the Territory to think of this as a resource in the same way that we think about minerals or gas.
With the ever-falling cost of solar panels and batteries, abundant sunlight means abundant low-cost energy.
Just as sunlight is distributed around the NT, so is the potential for supplying low-cost energy to places that have never had access to it before.
To take advantage of this, the TERC Report offers the concept of Sustainable Development Precincts.
These can be set up around the NT to bring together digital infrastructure, low-cost renewable electricity generation and economic activities that make use of that cheap energy.
For the first time, value-adding activities will become economically viable in the Territory, allowing smart businesses to have greater ambition than just exporting commodified goods.
Distributed examples of smart energy use include food processing, electric vehicle charging and powering remote communities.
On a larger scale, Sustainable Development Precincts could power extremely energy-intensive activities such as minerals processing and green hydrogen generation.
As gas is phased out around the world, these activities will be essential for the NT to maintain a scaled-up export industry.
That is why the TERC report strongly endorses the NT’s net zero emissions target.
Activities that align with the target will naturally benefit from the decarbonisation and digitalisation mega-trends and the associated global demand for zero emissions supply chains.
The zero emissions target helps ensure that the NT makes the tough short-term decisions that keep us on the long-term road to prosperity and growth.
In contrast, activities that don’t align are at risk of becoming stranded as the world accelerates towards a clean economy.
International investors are scouring the globe for opportunities to invest capital in jurisdictions that have the ambition and resources to be key players in supplying corporate demand for zero emissions supply chains.
As Shayne Elliott, the CEO of ANZ bank, put it just last week: “There is no shortage of capital, there is no shortage of liquidity, there is no shortage of banks looking to lend to sustainable projects.”