Australia’s Carbon Emissions at a New High

Australia's annual carbon emissions have reached a new high. An emissions tracking organization, Ndevr Environmental, which releases quarterly greenhouse gas emissions data, said emissions for the year up to December 2018 increased to 558.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide. The latest data points out that Australia is still not on track to meet the Paris target of a 26 - 28 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels. It also shows that carbon pollution is increasing across most of the sectors of the economy.

The Ndevr report shows a drop of 1.4m tonnes in the September quarter but a 0.9m spike in the same period a year ago. Matt Drum, Ndevr Environmental managing director, said emissions have again increased to a record high.

Drum said emissions from the electricity sector continues to decline due to large-scale renewable energy projects. "Over 2018 electricity emissions decreased by about 7m tonnes but those three sources together increased by more than 12.5m tonnes." He drew attention to increased emissions from transport, stationary energy (fuels burnt in equipment or plants not involved in electricity generation) and fugitive emissions (leaks from other activities such as methane from a coal mine).