Australia’s carbon emissions rise again, largely thanks to LNG industry

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise despite the Morrison government claiming it is taking “sensible, responsible action” to address the climate crisis, the latest official data shows.

Part of the LNG projects in the north of Western Australia.
 The growth of the industry is primarily responsible for
 the recent rises in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

National emissions increased by 3.1m tonnes in the year to March to reach 538.9m tonnes, a 0.6% jump on the previous year, the report released on Friday revealed.

Carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation continue to decrease, reflecting the falling cost of solar and wind energy, but this is being more than cancelled out by the growth in emissions from the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry, mostly in northern Western Australia. Emissions from LNG were up 4.7m tonnes over the year.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Morton -  “Australia’s carbon emissions rise again, largely thanks to LNG industry.” 

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased for fourth year in a row in 2018

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in 2018, according to a government report to the United Nations.

 Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions rose again in 2018,
according to the national inventory report to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

The submission shows again that Australia faces a huge task in meeting its obligations under the Paris agreement despite the government’s insistence it has laid out “to the last tonne” how it will do this.

The national inventory report to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says preliminary estimates indicate Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 were 537 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

This is an increase from 534.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2017.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox“ - “Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased for fourth year in a row in 2018.”

PM claims Australia will meet Paris target 'in a canter' despite emissions climbing

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise, but Scott Morrison seized on the silver lining, maintaining Australia would meet its Paris commitment, despite the government having no legislated instrument to help it get there.

 Scott Morrison (left) energy minister Angus Taylor during question time.
 The prime minister said Australia would meet its Paris targets largely
 based on investment in renewable energy technologies. 

Figures released on Friday showed Australia’s emissions increased 1.3% in the year to March 2018, up all sectors – except land use and electricity, where renewable technologies were having an impact on the latter.

The prime minister jumped on the rate of the increase not being as high as in previous years.

Read the story by Amy Remeikis from The Guardian - “PM claims Australia will meet Paris target 'in a canter' despite emissions climbing.”

(The rhetoric from our PM amazes and alarms me as some of the best climate thinkers in the world suggest that Australia will not meet its Paris targets in a “canter” or in any other way, so either Scott Morrison is either treating the truth somewhat loosely or he is simply uninformed. It is agreed and understood that even if all those countries that signed up to the 2015 Paris climate deal meet their targets, and that is not only unlikely, it’s almost certain, then we are still likely to see temperatures increase by at least three degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, and that, it is known, will make large chunks of earth uninhabitable. 

Yes, MrMorrison it will be at a canter, but that will soon become a gallop as we charge towards the climate abyss - Robert McLean)

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions rising - Government report

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2014-15, a report released with obscure timing by the Australian government has shown.

The December 2015 quarterly update of carbon emissions, which covers the period to the end of June 2015, was released with no fanfare on Christmas Eve. The quarterly update forms part of Australia’s international reporting of its emissions

It shows that Australia’s emissions increased by 0.8% last financial year compared with the previous one, and 1.3% when land use and deforestation were taken into account. Australia generated 549.3 mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2014-15.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia's carbon emissions are increasing, government report shows.”