This chapter aims to investigate the potential cooperation between Australia and the SAARC nations to facilitate generation and distribution of energy to better manage this sector and fulfil their commitments towards climate change conditions. As carbon emissions from non-renewables severely threatened the climate conditions, an effective transition to renewable resources is essential. In the Paris Agreement, Australia and SAARC nations committed to reduce their individual carbon emissions. But the SAARC lag in their commitments as they fail to unleash renewables and rely on fossil fuel. Australia leads in renewables, and SAARC provides a large market for it to relate services and technologies and improve energy efficiency and competitiveness. This chapter investigates the opportunities for strategic collaboration between these nations; challenges of energy trading, energy security, inefficient institutions, volatile prices and investment flows, collaborative capacity generation and distribution; and analyses comparative advantages for the countries to have mutually beneficial agreements to meet UNSDGs of affordable clean energy and climate action.
TopIntroduction
Traditional fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil have geared the path of economic growth, so much for so long that the overutilization of these non-renewable energy resources led to excessive carbon emissions bringing climate challenges to the forefront of sustainable development agenda. The challenge now is to prevent the global temperature from reaching an alarming height due to the greenhouse effect, in which heat gets trapped close to the earth’s surface by the greenhouse gases (GHG that includes carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides). This has been significantly changing the world’s climate, heavily disrupting environmental, societal, and economic sustainability, and propelling research towards an improved understanding of the problem and plausible policy solutions. Following the Paris Agreement (2016) and the United Nations Climate Change Conference (2021), countries all over the world have been impelled into collaborations and techniques to manage in reducing GHG to attain their commitment towards a low emission future. This chapter aims to focus on the opportunities and challenges of bilateral and multilateral partnerships between Australia and the eight (8) South-Asian nations which are all members of the South-Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to mutually help in transitioning energy sector for a sustainable future.
According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), nineteen of the warmest years have occurred since 2000, with 2020 being recorded as the warmest year since the beginning of record-keeping in 1880. The National Centres for Environmental Information (NCEI, 2021) reported that the global surface temperature for the January-June 2021 period was the eighth highest on the 142-year record, with global surface temperature in June 2021 alone recorded to be 0.88°C warmer than that of the 20th-century average. The occurrence of continuous warming and climate conditions are leading to frequent and intense natural disasters globally and putting the risk of extinction on the 3 billion world population living in areas that are too hot for humans by 2070 (Regan, 2020). Immediate and appropriate action is now an essential cornerstone of the sustainable development framework, which calls for international collaborations in investment, technology, services, and education to tackle these growing concerns.
Among the four fundamental economic sectors (energy; agriculture, forestry, and land use; industry; and waste) that contribute the most to GHG productions, energy tops the list (contribution from electricity, heat, industry, and transportation) and drives primary attention in finding an effective transition for its sources. Figure 1 below captures the distribution of GHG emissions by economic sectors. This chapter aims to investigate the scopes for strategic partnerships in the alternative energy sector between the developed economy of Australia and the developing economies of SAARC nations. Australia, with a land area of 7,682,300 km2, population density of 3.3 persons per km2 and an abundance of renewable to fossil fuel resources, has been witnessing an impressive reduction in sectoral energy consumption in recent years owing to its rapid progress in technologies. Australia also has an impressive electricity interconnection system as it operates and manages its national electricity market, the longest interconnected power system in the world. However, while its abundant renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and tidal are still underutilised, coal and natural gas remain its major export earners. The South-Asian economies are undergoing economic expansion, and are struggling with their high population density, increasing energy consumption, shortage of energy resources and lagging energy exploration capability. Australia benefits from Indian and South-Asian human and manufacturing resources adding value to its energy sector from mines to energy regulations. It also attracts investments for Australian mining and mineral processing and earns from exporting mining products to these nations. It is thus essential to explore how Australia can find new markets for trade, investment, international education and business opportunities for its resources, services, manufacturing, and technology sectors in South Asian countries and vice versa.
Figure 1. Distribution of GHG emission by economic sectors