Australia might fail to get to net zero without more investment in research and skills as economies compete for the best brains to develop emissions-busting technologies.
Willy Zwaenepoel, a world-leading expert in experimental computer science research, warns there's a "phenomenal demand" for people to work in the fields of energy and sustainability.
To escape the so-called valley of death, where great ideas fail to get out of a lab, many universities are already working with industry to develop commercially viable technologies to counter climate change.
"Above all, I think it's people that are important, and I think we're going to be short on people to do this," Professor Zwaenepoel told a conference on Monday.
"It's going to be particularly hard in the net-zero industry."
He said the old model of returning to university for a year or two of advanced research was no longer practical.
Student placements with industry and short courses to get micro-credentials were part of the answer, he said.
Global services firm Worley announced at the conference it would fund two scholarships for students researching climate change risk at the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership in Sydney.
The first University of Sydney Australian Net Zero Initiative Conference is being run this week alongside a Circular Economy Conference to showcase research on emissions reduction, waste and pollution.
Deputy vice-chancellor Annamarie Jagose said the initiative, launched this year, had accelerated research in high-priority areas of decarbonisation that several decades ago would have seemed fanciful.
"From capturing historical carbon from the atmosphere through to harnessing materials that previously would have ended up in landfill, our researchers are at the forefront of this work," Professor Jagose said.
For example, Professor Jun Huang is leading a team working on capturing emissions directly from power plants and turning them into hydrogen fuel, and how to trap emissions from air-conditioning systems in large buildings.
Hazer Group and Gelion Technologies are working with Professor Yuan Chen to develop carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and synthetic graphite, which are conductors for fast-charging electric car batteries and next-generation batteries for storing renewable power.
Other researchers are using complex mathematical models and data to better understand energy use or to develop smart and sustainable net-zero buildings.
All technologies are needed to confront the legacy of the industrial revolution and widespread fossil fuel use, which pumped 1.5 trillion tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, Professor Deanna D'Alessandro said.
Direct air capture, a process which sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, can address the issue of past emissions, she said.
Her team of researchers is working with Southern Green Gas and AspiraDAC on the world's first solar-powered project that buries captured carbon in underground permanent storage.
She said a demonstration project intends to capture 310 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
AspiraDAC has also sold its first credits to Frontier, which is a fund for carbon removal investments that is backed by Stripe, Shopify, Meta, Google and McKinsey.
