Extract from The Guardian
Covid lockdowns initially saw greenhouse gas emissions from road transport plummet but by September it was back to business as usual
Greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in Australia have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, exposing the country’s lack of policies to decarbonise the sector, new analysis shows.
But the amount of electricity being generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind continues to break records, with October seeing almost one-third of electricity being generated by clean sources.
Energy data analysed for the Australia Institute’s regular National Energy Emissions Audit shows the pandemic’s main effect on emissions was in the transport sector as people travelled less and stayed at home.
Lockdowns saw emissions from road transport plummet in the early part of 2020 but then start to rise sharply again towards September to almost reaching parity with previous years.
One exception was Victoria, where emissions from transport fell again in line with the state’s second-wave lockdowns as Covid-19 cases peaked in August.
In the year to June 2020, the audit suggests the drop in the use of petrol and diesel mainly for road transport, together with a decline in aviation fuel, saw a reduction of about 5.4mt of CO2e compared to an average year.
Victoria saw the biggest drop in road transport emissions of 2.4mt from April to September 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.
The analysis is produced for the institute by energy expert Hugh Saddler from Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.
Richie Merzian, the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, told Guardian Australia the government had supported the fossil fuel industry during the pandemic with subsidies for refineries.
“There seems to be no shortage of support for the existing fossil fuel industry in transport,” Merzian said. “But when it comes to reducing demand for fossil fuels the government is nowhere.”
In October, the federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, announced the government was investing $2oom to build new diesel storage and would pay Australian refineries one cent for each litre of petrol, diesel or jet fuel produced.
Both Victoria and South Australia have announced plans for a new tax on electric vehicles, which experts have warned will discourage their uptake in a country already lagging the world on electric cars.
Electric car sales are increasing in Australia but were just 0.6% of new car sales in 2019 compared to other developed countries where sales are between 2.5% and 5%.
The Morrison government has been working on a strategy that morphed from one expected to focus on electric vehicles to a “future fuels strategy”.
A draft of the plan leaked earlier this month was attacked by the electric vehicles industry which said the government had spent 18 months coming up with a “nothing” strategy.
Britain has announced a ban on sales of new fossil fuel cars from 2030 with Japan to follow in 2035. Norway has set a 2025 deadline.
“Australia remains highly reliant on fossil fuels for transport,” said Merzian. “The only real policy it has [to reduce emissions] is a pandemic. The lesson learned here is that we have to lower the demand for fossil fuels, not just secure supply which seems to be the focus for the energy minister.”
A fall in the use of coal and gas to generate electricity up to October 2020 coincided with an increased share from renewable energy, the audit finds.
Through October renewables were responsible for a record high 31.5% of electricity generation across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia – the five states that form the National Electricity Market.
On 2 October, renewables supplied a record-high 38.3% of electricity in the national market and the following day saw a 30-minute period where renewables supplied 53.8% of electricity – another record.
Merzian said as the electricity network became less polluting there was a stronger argument to increase the numbers of electric vehicles on roads – many of which would be charged from the grid.
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