According to new data Australia’s annual carbon emissions have reached a new high and drops in emissions from the electricity sector have been wiped out by increases from other industries.
Ndevr Environmental, an emissions-tracking organisation that releases quarterly greenhouse gas emissions data, said that annual emissions for the year up to December 2018 increased to 558.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e).
It was the highest level on record when excluding unreliable land use data.
Ndevr’s data showed Australia was still not on track to meet its United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement target of a 26-28 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels.
At the same time carbon pollution was increasing across most sectors of the economy.
The conservative Liberal-National government of the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly claimed Australia will meet its targets “in a canter”.
Its Energy Minister Angus Taylor was also criticised earlier this month for falsely claiming emissions were decreasing.
The Ndevr report said emissions in the December quarter decreased by 1.Mt CO2-e on the September quarter.
However, it also highlighted that emissions increased by 0.9Mt CO2-e on the same quarter a year ago.
Emissions fluctuate seasonally, with the September quarter typically recording the highest emissions levels within each year.
“This quarter rounds out the calendar year for 2018 and what it shows is that emissions have increased again to a record high,” Matt Drum, Ndevr’s managing director, told The Guardian newspaper.
The report shows emissions from the electricity sector continue to decline due to large-scale renewable energy projects.
However, those gains were cancelled out by increases in emissions from all forms of transport, stationary energy, such as fuels burnt in equipment or plants not involved in electricity generation, and fugitive emissions, such as leaks from other activities such as methane from a coalmine.
“Over 2018 electricity emissions decreased by about 7.0Mt CO2-e tonnes but those three sources together increased by more than 12.5Mt CO2-e,” Mr Drum told The Guardian.
Climate scientists have warned policymakers that emissions outside of the power sector account for the majority of Australia’s carbon pollution.
Australia is lagging behind other countries in setting new national vehicle emissions standards and transitioning to electric cars.
“It’s something we’ve been screaming from the rooftops for a long time now,” Mr Drum told The Guardian.
“The electricity sector is not the problem. The problem is all other sectors that aren’t subject to any real binding carbon emissions reduction target or policy.”
The report can be found here.
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