Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2016

Quarterly Update

Publication Date:

December 2016

Quarterly Update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2016 [3.01MB PDF]

Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts are made up of a series of comprehensive reports and databases that estimate, and account for, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. These publications fulfil Australia’s international and domestic inventory reporting requirements. The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory reports on the latest estimates of Australia’s national greenhouse gas inventory.

Key data

Australia's annual emissions for the year to March 2016, including the land sector, are estimated to be 536.2 Mt CO₂-e. This figure is the fourth lowest emissions level since the year 2000 (552.7 Mt CO₂-e). Emissions for the year to March 2016 were 2.8 per cent below emissions in the year 2000 and 11.0 per cent below emissions in the year 2005 (602.6 Mt CO₂-e).

Annual emissions for the year to March 2016 increased 1.3 per cent compared with the previous year. Increased emissions from the electricity, industrial processes and product use, transport and fugitive emissions from fossil fuel extraction and production sectors were partially offset by a decline in emissions from agriculture.

In the March 2016 quarter, emissions levels excluding the land sector increased by 0.5 per cent in trend terms, and increased 0.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis.

Emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy, including the land sector, were both at their lowest levels in 26 years in the year to March 2016 (Figure 1). Emissions per capita have fallen 30.9 per cent since 1990, while the emissions intensity of the economy has fallen 55.3 per cent since 1990.