9.4: Caring for the Country

Australia’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, Australia’s share represented 1.5 per cent of the total in the year 2006. This placed Australia as 13th in the world in terms of its national contribution to the total global emissions of greenhouse gases (see Graph 1). However, expressed on a per person basis, Australia is among the very largest greenhouse gas polluters, adding the equivalent of 28 tonnes of CO2 per person per year to the Earth’s atmosphere.
 

Graph 1: Total annual emission of green house gases of the 20 largest greenhouse gas emitters. The arrow highlights Australia’s emission total. Note: Carbon dioxide equivalents, CO2-e, provide the basis for comparing the warming effect of different greenhouse gases (Source: Garnaut 2008 citing UNFCCC and others).

The high national emission level of 28 tonnes CO2-eq per person in 2006 is the result of a combination of factors peculiar to Australia:

• coal is the major fuel for electricity generation (we have abundant coal reserves);
• high emissions from land use, land use change and forestry which is unusual for a developed country;
• production for export of many goods with high associated emission levels – i.e. mining resources (e.g. processed aluminium) and agricultural products destined for consumption in other countries.

In Australia the main organisation responsible for monitoring these greenhouse gas emissions is the federal Department of Climate Change. The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory published by this department is a report which details the Australian contributions to ‘greenhouse gas emissions and removals.’ As was the case in the IPCC report, the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006 presented ‘emissions for each of the major greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-e).
Summarising its findings (Table 1), the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006 reported:

• ‘Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors totaled 576.0 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-eq) in 2006 …
• Emissions in 2006 were 4.2% above 1990 levels.’

Table 1:  Australia’s Emissions 1990, 2006 and 2007 (preliminary). (Source: Australian Department of Climate Change, ‘National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006’,   p. 5)

	Emissions (Megatonnes CO²-eq)	Emissions (Megatonnes CO²-eq)	Emissions (Megatonnes CO²-eq)	% change in emissions	% change in emissions
	1990	2006	2007	1990-07	2006-07
Energy	286	401	423	44.2%	3.0%
Industrial Processes	24	28	29	21.5%	3.3%
Agriculture	87	90	86	-1.1%	-4.7%
Waste	19	17	17	-9.8%	1.8%
Australia's Net Emissions (excluding Land use, Land Use Change and Forestry)	416	536	545	31.0%	1.7%
Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry	136	40	40	-70.6%	0.4%
Australia's Net Emissions (including Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry)	553	576	585	5.9%	1.6%

Note: CO2-eq is carbon dioxide equivalents

The largest source of greenhouse gases in Australia in 2006 was from the stationary energy sector - e.g. electricity power generation. Agriculture as well as land use, land use change and forestry were also relatively large contributors.

Between 1990 and 2007, there was a significant reduction in land clearing (of more than 70%), partly due to government policies. This resulted in net greenhouse gas emissions increasing by only 5.9% between 1990 and 2007.  However, if we exclude land use, land use change and forestry from the calculations, Australia's greenhouse emissions increased by 31%, from 416 Million tonnes (Mt) to 545 Mt of CO2-eq.  By far the greatest contributor to this increase was the stationary energy sector based largely on coal-fired generation of electricity.
 

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Outcomes
9.4.6: Students learn to analyse different scientific views on the causes of global warming to assess predictions on the likelihood of global warming