Future Fuels Forum

• Background
• Outcomes
• Partners

Background

The transport sector is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in Australia behind stationary energy generation and agriculture. The ETF convened a Forum that focused on the development of solutions to this crucial issue.

The Future Fuels Forum (FFF) began in November 2007 and culminated in July 2008 with the release of a report, Future Fuels Forum report - Fuel for thought.

The initiative brought together 18 leading representatives from Australia’s community, industry and government to share ideas and develop a range of options for our nation’s transport fuel future, determining what could potentially get us ‘from A to B’ by the middle of the century.

This project follows the successful Energy Futures Forum (EFF), a collaboration with energy industry stakeholders that developed scenarios for the future of energy in Australia. The EFF released a report, The heat is on: the future of energy in Australia [external link], in December 2006.

Outcomes

The decisions we make now about fuel used for road, rail and air transport, and the infrastructure for these industries, will have an impact on our nation’s lifestyle, economy and environment in the long term.

The Forum developed future scenarios using sophisticated techno-economic modelling tools and explored a range of issues including:

• likely policy changes such as emission trading
• future fuels and technologies and how quickly they can be deployed
• international oil supply.

Fuel for thought does not make policy recommendations but was designed to provide input to strategic policy and investment decision making for both the FFF participants and other stakeholders such as government and industry.

The Forum identified a number of key risks, opportunities and challenges for the future of transport fuels in Australia, including:

• Increasing cost of oil and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will drive change
• Australia’s fuel mix will be more diverse
• The price of oil-based fuel products will increase
• Any increase in transport costs will adversely impact low income Australians
• Technology alone will not be enough to meet the potential fuel supply gap
• Australian travel preferences are as important as fuel and technology preferences in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Partners

Future Fuels Forum partners include:

• Australian Automobile Association
• Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas
• Australian Conservation Foundation
• ARRB Group
• Biofuels Association of Australia
• Caltex
• Engineers Australia
• Future Climate Australia
• Heck Group
• GM Holden
• National Roads and Motorists Association
• National Transport Commission
• Public Interest Advocacy Centre
• Queensland Rail
• Sasol Chevron
• The South Australian Government
• The Victorian Government
• Woolworths.

The Future Fuels Forum published two reports Future Fuels Forum report - Fuel for thought and Modelling of the future of transport fuels in Australia.

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Related Links

• Energy Transformed Flagship
• Energy
• CSIRO Energy Technology

• The Energy Futures Forum
• Developing solutions for low emission fuels
• The greenhouse and air quality emissions of biodiesel blends in Australia
• Energy sector modelling