Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions: March 2020 quarterly update
A reduction in petrol and jet fuel use due to COVID-19 has contributed to a drop in Australia’s emissions, according to preliminary estimates for the June quarter of 2020.
As a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, Australia has made commitments to:
- reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
- track progress towards those commitments
- report each year on Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions
The latest Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory includes preliminary greenhouse gas emissions estimates for this period. That’s in addition to estimates up to March 2020.
The report shows emissions from consumption of liquid fuels (which also includes diesel) were lower by 17.9% than in the June quarter 2019.
Australia’s overall emissions fell 1.4% or 7.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-e) to 528.7 Mt CO2-e. They are now 14.3% below 2005 levels (the baseline year for the Paris Agreement) in the year to March 2020.
Agricultural emissions were also down, by 5.8% (4.2 Mt CO2-e), in part due to the ongoing impact of the drought.
Emissions from electricity continued to decline, down 4.2% (7.6 Mt CO2-e) in the year to March 2020.
These quarterly updates provide information for policy makers, markets and the public to understand how Australia is tracking against our Paris Agreement targets. The latest update includes interactive data to compare emissions in each quarter at a glance.
