National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Quarterly Update: December 2022

The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory reports on the latest greenhouse gas emissions.

This update provides estimates of:

• national emissions up to the December quarter of 2022
• preliminary national emissions up to the March quarter of 2023.

This update also includes a special topic on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry.

Data insights

Emissions for the year to December 2022 are estimated to be 463.9 Mt CO₂-e, down 0.4% or 2.0 Mt CO₂-e on the previous year. This change in emissions reflects movements across sectors, including:

• Ongoing reductions in emissions from electricity as renewable energy uptake continues (down 3.5%; 5.5 Mt CO₂-e);
• Decreased fugitive emissions (down 1.7%; 0.8 Mt CO₂-e), reflecting reduced production in coal mining due to the impacts of heavy rainfall events in New South Wales and Queensland;
• Decreased emissions from stationary energy (excluding electricity) (down 1.5%; 1.6 Mt CO₂-e); driven primarily by decreased activity in the manufacturing sector and decreased gas consumption in the residential sector;
• Increased transport emissions (up 4.9%; 4.4 Mt CO₂-e) reflecting the ongoing recovery from COVID related travel restrictions, particularly in domestic aviation; and
• Increased emissions from agriculture (up 2.6%; 2.0 Mt CO₂-e), returning to pre-drought levels as a result of increases in livestock numbers and crop production.

Emissions in the year to December 2022 were 24.7% below emissions in the year to June 2005 (the baseline year for Australia’s 2030 target under the Paris Agreement).

On a quarterly basis, national emission levels for the December quarter 2022 remained flat in trend terms. This result reflects increases across the stationary energy (excluding electricity), agriculture, fugitive emissions and industrial processes sectors. These increases were offset by decreases across the electricity, transport, Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) and waste sectors.

In the year to December 2022, the emissions intensity of the economy continued its long-term decline, down 52.1% on year to June 2005 levels. Emissions per capita were 42.0% lower than year to June 2005.

National emissions are preliminarily estimated to be 464 Mt CO₂-e in the year to March 2023, a decrease of 0.2% on the previous year to March. On a quarterly basis, national emissions are preliminarily estimated to be 116 Mt CO₂-e in trend terms, a decrease of 0.6% on the previous quarter.

Quarterly emissions

The interactive dashboard presents national emissions estimates from June 2005 to December 2022. Navigate between the pages to view emissions estimates by quarter, year, gas and sector.

Filter the data using the drop-down boxes to customise the view. Mouse over the charts to view actual emissions or trends for any quarter.

About the data

We compiled this report in line with emissions estimation rules countries adopted under the Paris Agreement.

Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Accounts take into account the latest scientific evidence. We fulfil our international treaty commitments by submitting annual National Inventory Reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A UNFCCC expert team reviews them each year for transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency.