Australia’s carbon emissions edged lower in 2022 with reductions from the electricity sector partly countered by increases in pollution from transport and agriculture.
The country’s emissions last year totalled 463.9m tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (Mt CO2-e), down 0.4% or 2m tonnes from the previous year. Preliminary estimates for the year to 31 March 2023 indicated emissions totalled 464Mt CO2-e, or 0.2% lower on a rolling 12-month tally, the national greenhouse gas inventory shows.
Between June 2005 and the end of 2022, carbon pollution dropped 24.7%, or slightly more than half the Albanese government’s 43% emissions reduction target by 2030.
Australia’s total budget under the Paris climate agreement is 4.353bn tonnes of CO2-e, and so far it has burned through 27% of the total in 25% of the accord’s time period.
We need emissions to keep falling at the rate they did during the lockdowns, and well... they are not. pic.twitter.com/hL9ucUvdHS
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) May 31, 2023
Of the sectors, emissions from land use, land use changes and forestry decreased by the largest margin since June 2005, the government said. The reported drop of 179.1%, or 144.6Mt CO2-e, was “due to reductions in land clearing and native forest harvesting, increases in plantations and native vegetation, and improvements in soil carbon”.
Some analysts, though, have questioned how the land sector can realistically be considered an ongoing carbon sink when land clearing in Queensland and NSW has increased in the past decade.
The reduction in emissions in the power sector is more clearcut, with a limited number of polluting sites closely monitored by regulators. Emissions from this industry have fallen 21.4% or 42.1Mt CO2-e since June 2005, although the sector continues to account for about a third of pollution.
“After decades of strong growth, emissions peaked in 2009 and have since fallen 26.9%,” the inventory said. “This reflects accelerating renewables deployment and gradual displacement of coal as a fuel source.”
Most other sectors of the economy have tended to increase emissions over time, such as so-called fugitive emissions from the fossil fuel industry. In 2022, though, heavy rainfall in New South Wales and Queensland curbed some coalmining output, resulting in a 1.7% drop, or 800,000 tonnes of CO2-e.
Falling emissions from stationary energy, such as that used in manufacturing and gas heating in homes, all retreated in 2022, easing back 1.5% or 1.6Mt CO2-e.
As Covid restrictions eased, transport emissions gained 4.9% or 4.4Mt CO2-e, last year, led by people taking more flights. Agriculture was another sector emitting more, with the total up 2.6% or 2Mt CO2-e, as livestock numbers and crop production bounced back to pre-drought levels, the government said.
