Net Zero Trajectory

In 2022, Australia signed into legislation, greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets are as follows:

Reducing Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions to 43% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Reducing Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

The following graph shows the changes in Australia's Healthcare Emissions Profile over the last 40 years:

Whilst the profile has been trending downwards since 2007, the rate of reduction highlights that we will miss our 2030 and 2050 committments:

As can be seen above, based on the current approach, Australia will not reach Net Zero until 2070.

The following graph highlights the trajectory required to achieve our 2030 and 2050 obligations:

As can be seen, there is a major step change required if we are to meet our obligations.

In simple terms, we need to achieve the following reductions on current emissions (2024):

40% reduction by 2030

60% reduction by 2035

80% reduction by 2040

95% reduction by 2045

100% reduction by 2050

The above reduction targets are across all scopes proportionally.

Whilst it is relatively simple to understand the targets at national level, it is more difficult to establish what this means for the design, construction and operation of individual health facilities.

The following pages establish a framework for setting Carbon Emission Targets for both exisitng and new healthcare facilities.