Australia’s carbon emissions grow at fastest rate since 2004

Extract from The Guardian

Climate change

Report says Australia will fall short of meeting its nationally determined contributions under the Paris agreement

Nick Evershed

@NickEvershed

Fri 30 Nov 2018 14.51 AEDT Last modified on Fri 30 Nov 2018 14.54 AEDT

The latest figures add evidence to claims by the UN, climate and energy analysts, and the opposition that Australia will fail to meet its Paris targets. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Australia’s carbon emissions have again continued to increase, according to official government figures released on Friday.
The results show emissions are rising much faster than in recent years – the quarterly growth trend is the highest it has been since 2004.
Australia’s emissions, seasonally adjusted, increased 1.3% over the past quarter. Excluding emissions from land use, land use change and forestry (for which the calculations are controversial), they are at a record high.

But per capita emissions have continued to decline, and are now at their lowest level in 28 years.
The report puts the absolute increase down to a rise in fugitive emissions because of increased LNG production, as well as higher emissions from transport and other sectors.

The new figures add evidence to claims by the United Nations, climate and energy analysts, and the opposition that Australia will fail to meet its Paris targets.

On Wednesday, the UN released its annual emissions gap report, which looks at the gap between carbon reduction policies in each country and what is required to keep global warming well below 2C.

The report found that Australia would fall short of meeting its nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris agreement, saying: “There has been no improvement in Australia’s climate policy since 2017 and emission levels for 2030 are projected to be well above the NDC target.
“The latest projection published by the government shows that emissions would remain at high levels rather than reducing in line with the 2030 target.”
Australia’s environment minister, Melissa Price, said on Wednesday the government had “the right mix of scalable policies to meet our 2030 targets”.
“Policies like the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have led to emissions reductions in the electricity sector, for instance,” she said.
“And they continue to deliver results. Wind and solar generation in the national electricity market is projected to increase by 250% over the next three years.”