Category Archives: Greenhouse gas emissions

Australia’s annual plastic consumption produces emissions equivalent to 5.7m cars, analysis shows

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Plastics consumed nationally in 2019-20 created 16m tonnes of greenhouse gases, report says

The plastics consumed yearly by Australians have a greenhouse emissions impact equivalent to 5.7m cars – more than a third of the cars on Australia’s roads, new analysis suggests.

A report commissioned by the Australian Marine Conservation Society and WWF Australia has found that the plastics consumed nationally in the 2019-20 financial year created 16m tonnes of greenhouse gases.

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Australia resists Japan’s lobbying for NT gas export project to be given special treatment

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Australian government stands by safeguard mechanism’s design and indicates it will not change in response to lobbying

The Albanese government is resisting a push by Japan for a major new Northern Territory gas export development to be given special treatment under Australia’s revamped emissions reduction policy.

The Kishida government has lobbied the Albanese government over its concerns about Australia’s safeguard mechanism, a climate policy that requires major industrial polluters to either cut greenhouse gas emissions intensity – how much they emit per unit of production – or pay for carbon offsets.

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Australia needs to reduce emissions to net zero by 2038 to do ‘fair share’ to contain global heating, analysis shows

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Exclusive: Researchers say government’s climate schedule needs to be brought forward by a decade to keep heating to 1.5C

Australia’s fair share of action to give the world a chance of keeping global heating to 1.5C would mean reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2038 – more than a decade ahead of the government’s schedule, according to new scientific analysis.

To stay on track to keep global heating of 1.5C within reach – a goal the climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen has described as vital – Australia’s 2035 target would need to see a cut of 90% on 2005 levels by 2035, the analysis says.

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‘No time to waste’: getting Australian homes off gas crucial for meeting net zero targets, report says

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Grattan Institute analysis recommends governments help households transition to electric, and ban new gas connections for homes and businesses

Getting households off gas for heating and cooking would cut energy bills and improve people’s health, and is necessary for Australia to have any hope of reaching net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050, a new analysis says.

The report by the Grattan Institute, a Melbourne-based thinktank, called on state and territory governments to set dates for the end of gas use and launch campaigns to encourage and help households become “all electric”, running on renewable energy.

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Campaigners win right to challenge England’s food strategy over climate crisis

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Feedback argues ministers’ failure to include measures to reduce production of meat and dairy products was unlawful

Ministers broke the law by failing to make plans to cut consumption of meat and dairy in England, activists will argue in a legal challenge after they were granted permission for a full judicial review of the government’s food strategy.

Overturning two previous decisions, the court of appeal on Friday ruled that the food systems campaigners Feedback could challenge the national food strategy on the basis that it failed to take into account ministers’ duties to cut carbon emissions.

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Australia’s emissions fell 0.4% in 2022 despite increases in transport and agriculture pollution

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Inventory shows Australia has burned through 27% of emissions budget under Paris climate accord in 25% of allotted time

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.

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Australian banks lending billions to fossil fuel projects despite supporting emissions reductions, analysis suggest

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Big four have pledged to align business practices with Paris agreement but loophole allows them to fund sector, activist group says

Australia’s big banks have loaned more than $13bn for fossil fuel projects over the past two years even as they publicly advocate for emissions reductions, a new report suggests.

Analysis by environmental activist group Market Forces has found that while Australia’s major banks largely avoid providing direct project finance to new coal, oil and gas projects, they do fund corporate entities that develop them.

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Jeep maker Stellantis demands billions to keep battery plant in Canada

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World’s fourth biggest carmaker threatens to move production to US unless government matches incentives offered to Volkswagen

Jeep maker Stellantis has threatened to shift a planned battery plant from Canada to the US unless it receives billions more in state subsidies offered to a rival, in the latest manoeuvre by a big manufacturer in the international battle over green incentives.

It comes as the world’s fourth biggest carmaker, which also produces Vauxhall/Opel, Fiat, Citroën, Peugeot, DS, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth vehicles, leads a campaign in Europe for the UK and EU to renegotiate tariff rules in the Brexit deal.

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UK failing to honour net zero farming pledges, report finds

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Exclusive: Projected emissions drop for agriculture and land use 58% below target in original net zero plan

The UK government’s pledges on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming and land use fall short of promises made in its net zero strategy, analysis has found.

Using figures from the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, analysts from WWF found that the total projected emissions reductions from now until 2037 for agriculture and land use were 58% less than the emissions reductions figures underpinning the original net zero strategy. This gap is equivalent to the emissions of the entire UK building sector.

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Record levels of renewable energy help bring down Australia’s energy prices, says Aemo

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Energy dynamics report finds clean energy is displacing fossil fuels and sending carbon emissions from the sector to new lows

Australia’s record levels of renewable energy helped extend the slide in wholesale power prices in the first three months of 2023, displacing fossil fuels and sending carbon emissions from the sector to new lows for the first quarter.

The latest energy dynamics report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) showed wholesale spot prices in the national electricity market (NEM) averaged $83/MWh, down more than a 10th from the December quarter and two-thirds lower than the record average $264/MWh in the June quarter last year.

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John Kerry: relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide is ‘dangerous’

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Exclusive: US climate envoy says existing measures, such as shift to renewable energy, must be deployed faster to stop global warming

Relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is “dangerous” and a cause for “alarm”, John Kerry has warned.

The US special presidential envoy for climate said in an interview that new technologies may not prevent the world from passing “tipping points”, key temperature thresholds that, once passed, could trigger a cascade of unstoppable physical effects.

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China ramps up coal power despite carbon neutral pledges

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Local governments approved more coal power in first three months of 2023 than all of 2021

Local governments in China approved more new coal power in the first three months of 2023 than in the whole of 2021, according to official documents.

The approvals, analysed by Greenpeace, reveal that between January and March this year, at least 20.45 gigawatts of coal power was approved, up from 8.63GW in the same period in 2022. In the whole of 2021, 18GW of coal was approved.

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Majority of Australians keen to switch from gas to electric to lower emissions, survey finds

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Poll also revealed 65% of drivers expect to be buying a hybrid or electric vehicle if they upgrade in the next 10 years

The majority of Australians feel positive about switching off the gas and turning to cleaner energy options, with environmental reasons one of the biggest drivers behind the shift, according to new research by the Australia Institute and research firm SEC Newgate.

In a poll about electrification, 55% felt positively about electrifying more homes, with 59% mentioning environmental reasons as a main driver of their opinion and 18% pointing to the potential for cheaper electricity bills.

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Advice on voice a ‘cynical political tactic’ to confuse voters, Coalition claims – as it happened

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Ed Husic says board appointments alone won’t guarantee RBA diversity

The ministry for industry, Ed Husic, says he believes new appointments to the RBA board alone isn’t enough to bring diversity to the central bank – he says there need to be “deeper structures” put in place.

As a government, I can give you this assurance. We do like to take into account people’s views from different vantage points. I do think it is important that where decisions have an impact – not just in terms of investors or industry but the people that work in them or the broader community – I think it’s a healthier decision …

Some people will fix on ‘well, someone should have a seat at the board’ for that to occur and I understand why they’ll make those arguments. I’m not necessarily convinced that that specifically guarantees that will occur, just having one person on the board. There need to be a lot deeper structures for people to have that sense that they’ve had a say and that they can have an ability to influence and inform decision making.

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Emissions from WA gas project with world’s largest industrial carbon capture system rise by more than 50%

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Chevron development off Pilbara coast was approved on condition the company store about 4m tonnes of CO2 a year

Emissions from Chevron’s Gorgon gas development off Western Australia have increased by more than 50% despite it being home to the world’s largest industrial carbon capture and storage system.

There has been a sharp drop in the amount of CO2 stored underground at the liquefied natural gas plant over the last three years, data released by Chevron showed.

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Renewable energy growth must double to meet Australia’s emission goals, Clean Energy Council says

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More than 35% of Australia’s electricity last year was supplied by renewables, up from just under 17% in 2017

Australia’s renewable energy industry is growing at half the pace needed for the sector to meet the Albanese government’s emissions reduction goals, despite the sector having one of its best years, the Clean Energy Council said in its annual report.

Last year construction commenced on a record of more than 5,000MW of large-scale wind and solar farms. Work also started on 19 big batteries with 1,380MW/2,004MWh capacity, or almost half as large again as the previous record year in 2021, the council said.

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Australia’s coming national electric vehicle strategy will be ‘quite ambitious’, experts say

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Chris Bowen is expected to introduce an EV and vehicle fuel efficiency standards policy next week

Australia’s long-awaited national electric vehicle strategy is expected to be released next week, finally detailing the introduction of pollution standards that should accelerate the uptake of electric cars.

Industry sources say the federal climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, will release the strategy ahead of an event in western Sydney on Wednesday.

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Lack of NI government puts net zero targets at risk, UK climate adviser warns

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Climate Change Committee says little hope of getting on track if Stormont power sharing not restored soon

The prolonged lack of devolved government in Northern Ireland threatens to seriously hamper the country’s ability to hit the ambitious emissions reduction targets enshrined by law in its climate act, the chief executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said.

There has been no power-sharing government in place to advance work on meeting these commitments since Northern Ireland’s Climate Change Act, which includes a 2050 net zero target, was passed last spring.

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Biden team to propose strict vehicle pollution limits to boost EV sales

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Proposal expected to be unveiled on Wednesday would require at least 54% of new vehicles sold in US to be electric by 2030

The Biden administration will propose strict new automobile pollution limits requiring that all-electric vehicles account for as many as two of every three new vehicles sold in the US by 2032 in a plan that would transform the US auto industry.

Under the proposed regulation, expected to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday, greenhouse gas emissions for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles would be limited to even stricter levels than the auto industry agreed to in 2021.

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King’s green energy firm was investigated after 38-day greenhouse gas leak

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Health and Safety Executive also issued several notices related to worker safety and explosive substances at JV Energen

A green energy company set up by King Charles was investigated for numerous health and safety breaches after the unauthorised leak of more than 1,000 tonnes of global-heating gases.

Methane, CO2 and traces of the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide were released after a gas-holder at the plant split open in 2020. The incident, which lasted for 38 days, was described as “significant” by the Environment Agency.

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