Western Australia can turn today's resource wealth into lasting prosperity if it acts now to decarbonise and diversify its economy, a major report from Independent Member for Curtin Kate Chaney has found.
“WA must choose between two diverging paths. One path, which risks petering out, continues WA’s fossil fuel dependency and ‘dig and ship’ exports. The other decarbonises, diversifies, creates new jobs, boosts productivity and adds value to our economy and exports. We cannot walk both paths at once, and we must decide whether WA’s future is as a petro-state or an electro-state,” Ms Chaney said.
“There is no time to waste. Decarbonisation offers a generational opportunity to supercharge the nation’s productivity and economy.”
Ms Chaney’s report, Clean Power: Securing WA's Future Prosperity draws on more than a year's work, consultation with more than 50 industry leaders and energy experts, and survey responses from 2,300 Western Australians.
“This is a comprehensive report setting a course for WA’s future prosperity, energy security and emissions reduction. Prosperity has made us complacent, but building a resilient economy for the coming decades requires bold and courageous thought leadership and policymaking,” Ms Chaney said.
“We must push beyond propping up industrial processes and energy sources with a limited lifespan. We need Australian governments to commit to capturing the advantages of the global energy transformation.”
The report addresses three interlinked challenges:
1. Diversifying into clean exports is WA's next major economic opportunity
WA's economy remains concentrated in one industry, one export and one market — a vulnerability as China approaches peak steel demand and trading partners introduce carbon tariffs at the border. Green iron alone could grow from a $4 billion export industry by 2030 to as much as $170 billion by 2050, identified as WA's single biggest new opportunity. WA has active projects across eight clean export industries, including critical minerals, clean hydrogen and green iron, and could support close to 20,000 new jobs in green iron alone by 2050.
"We built our prosperity selling raw resources. WA’s next chapter must be about capturing more value here, onshore, rather than watching it grow elsewhere,” Ms Chaney said.
2. Decarbonising WA's own economy is the fastest way to end its dependence on imported fuel
WA's mining, transport and agriculture sectors are between 67 and 98 per cent dependent on imported diesel. The global oil crisis triggered by the 2026 Iran War demonstrated the state’s exposure to foreign shocks. Replacing imported fuel with domestic renewable energy, electrification and sustainable fuels reduces that exposure and keeps energy spending in the local economy.
"When the Iran War sent oil prices spiking, it was a wake-up call for Australians. WA runs on imported fuel for almost everything that moves or is dug up here. That kind of energy security exposure is a risk we can manage, but only if we transform our sources of energy,” Ms Chaney said.
3. Acting now to turn WA’s emissions footprint into global climate influence
WA is the only Australian state with rising domestic emissions. The downstream emissions from WA's fossil fuel exports are roughly 13 times the state's domestic footprint. That scale means WA's decarbonisation choices carry disproportionate weight in global emissions outcomes.
“The decarbonisation decisions we make in WA carry significant weight not only for the nation, but for the world. WA can be a global leader on emissions reduction as it pursues wealth and energy certainty for future generations,” Ms Chaney said.
"Governments cannot hedge their bets on renewables and fossil fuels forever. This report shows the same advantages that made WA a resources giant — our sun, wind, land and minerals — can secure our prosperity through the energy transformation. Rather than three separate arguments, it's one: the sooner we decarbonise, the more secure and more prosperous WA becomes."
[ENDS]
Background
The full report sets out substantially more detail, including specific policy recommendations across every major sector of the WA economy and the practical conditions (finance, planning, workforce) needed to deliver them.
The report sets out eight near-term policy priorities for governments to deliver this transformation:
- Supercharge renewables roll-out: coordinate strategic transmission investment, streamline planning and approvals, and underwrite large-scale clean energy projects to unlock private capital.
- Reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels: a long-term strategy to replace imported diesel, petrol and jet fuel with domestic renewable energy, electrification and sustainable fuels, rather than just managing the risk of supply disruption.
- Make sure Australians get a fair share from our resources: reform royalties and export taxes so that the wealth generated by Australia's fossil fuel and clean energy resources flows back to Australian communities, not just to shareholders.
- Level the playing field for clean Australian industry: ensure clean domestic producers are not undercut by cheaper high-emissions imports, while positioning WA's clean exports to access premium international markets that increasingly require low-carbon credentials.
- De-risk clean industry investment: help first-mover clean energy and industrial projects reach Final Investment Decision by sharing early-stage risk and creating demand certainty, so private capital has the confidence to invest at scale.
- Make big polluters accountable for emissions: in lieu of a price on carbon, strengthen and expand the Safeguard Mechanism so that Australia's largest emitters are incentivised to undertake ambitious, on-site decarbonisation.
- Stop subsidising the wrong fuels: reform the Diesel Fuel Tax Credit and transition to a road user charge, so government revenue policy stops actively rewarding fossil fuel use at the expense of cleaner alternatives.
- Make sure no business gets left behind: targeted support for small and medium businesses in manufacturing, transport, agriculture and commercial sectors that sit outside the Safeguard Mechanism and currently have neither the incentive nor the means to decarbonise.
Media enquiries: Cade Smith | 0408 997 003 | [email protected]