Australia can increase its exports of food and minerals to the world without destroying its natural resource base, new CSIRO research has found.

Modelling by CSIRO shows it is possible for the country to grow its economy while protecting its environment, including limiting greenhouse emissions to stop global warming beyond 2 degrees, researchers said.

In particular, they found Australia could reduce its per capita emissions to below the global average by 2050, down from five times the average in 1990, while maintaining strong economic growth.

"You can certainly have a lot of cake and eat it too," lead researcher Dr Steve Hatfield-Dodds of CSIRO said.

"We certainly don't have to reject economic growth and we don't have to reject, in a sense, consumerism."

The findings are published today in the journal Nature and in a report released on CSIRO's website.

Dr Hatfield-Dodds said the report has developed the most comprehensive model to date of the impact of our energy, water and food needs on the environment.

Australia could service world demand for basics

The researchers explored over 20 potential scenarios for Australia's future by modelling the effects of different policy and technology choices.

The model includes the agricultural, mining and energy production sectors of the economy — which account for three quarters of resource use and about one quarter of jobs in Australia.

Three of these scenarios resulted in an increase in Australian incomes and living standards, even while greenhouse gas emissions fell, native habitat increased and water stress on systems like the Murray-Darling Basin stabilised or decreased.

These "win-win" scenarios see Australia servicing the world's growing demand for food, minerals and energy, Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.

"You've got a growing population globally and it's getting wealthier," he said.

"Those people still want stuff and Australia is still good at producing stuff."

But the researchers said there would need to be a switch from coal to renewable energy, including biofuels and carbon sequestration.

While the three scenarios assume the viability of geosequestration, Dr Hatfield-Dodds said previous research had shown the same "decarbonisation" of the economy could occur using other approaches.

Blueprint for a green economy: policy choices are key

These CSIRO blueprints for a green economy see increasing agricultural productivity boosting the amount of food produced and increased payments to farmers to plant trees on less productive lands, which would both sequester carbon and restore native habitat and biodiversity.

The green economy would require an increase in water recycling, desalination, and careful controls on extraction of water from river basins, to meet the expected doubling in water demand by 2050, the researchers said.

The common concept underlying these measures was "decoupling" or breaking the links between economic growth and environmental pressure, Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.

"So you still get the energy you want without the emissions, you still get the food you want without land clearing, and you still get the water you want without water stress," he said.

The CSIRO model looked at the effect of "individual" and "collective" action on the future to see which had the biggest impact.

They found that while individual action — such as choosing energy efficient devices — was important in shaping the future, it was actually the government policy that made the most difference because it affected the choices available to individuals.

Findings welcomed by scientific and environment groups

Mr Peter Cosier from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists said the research was "a very important piece of work".

"The great misunderstanding about economic growth is that the assumption that it must automatically lead to environmental degradation," he said.

"It's not how much of a resource you use, it's the way you use that resource.

"We've created an economic system that is extraordinarily successful at promoting economic growth, but it hasn't integrated into that success the conservation of the natural capital that underpins all that growth."

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Mr Cosier said the CSIRO research showed it was feasible to make policy choices to change this.

Mr Jonathan La Nauze, campaign director for the Australian Conservation Foundation, also welcomed the report, saying it showed it was possible to reverse damage to water, wildlife and soils.

"We're actually smart enough to live with nature, with good jobs and comfortable houses if we choose to. But we need a plan," he said.

"It's about choosing scenarios that don't trade off one important element of our environment against another."

Mr La Nauze agreed with the findings that government policy helped shape individual decisions on such things as whether to use the car or train to get the work, and whether to use renewables rather than coal for home energy.

"The choices made by our political leaders shape the choices available to everyday Australians," he said.