National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Quarterly Update: March 2023

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

This update also includes a special topic on emissions from harvested native forests.

Data insights

Emissions for the year to March 2023 are estimated to be 465.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO₂-e). This is relatively flat compared with the previous year, with emissions estimated to be up 0.1% or 0.3 Mt CO₂-e. This change in emissions reflects movements across sectors, including:

• Ongoing reductions in emissions from electricity (down 3.9%; 6.3 Mt CO₂-e) as renewable energy uptake continues to displace fossil fuel power sources;
• Decreased fugitive emissions (down 1.1%; 0.6 Mt CO₂-e), reflecting a fall in coal production;
• Decreased emissions from stationary energy (excluding electricity) (down 0.8%; 0.9 Mt CO₂-e) driven primarily by decreased activity in the manufacturing sector;
• Increased transport emissions (up 6.4%; 5.9 Mt CO₂-e) reflecting the ongoing recovery from COVID related travel restrictions, particularly in domestic aviation; and
• Increased emissions from agriculture (up 3.2%; 2.6 Mt CO₂-e), returning to pre-drought levels as a result of increases in livestock populations and crop production.

Emissions in the year to March 2023 were 24.4% 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 March quarter 2023 decreased 0.1% (0.1 Mt CO₂-e) in trend terms. This result reflects decreases across the electricity, fugitive emissions and industrial processes sectors. These decreases were partially offset by increases across the stationary energy (excluding electricity), transport, agriculture and waste sectors.

In the year to March 2023, the emissions intensity of the economy continued its long-term decline, down 53.0% on year to June 2005 levels. Emissions per capita were 42.1% lower than year to June 2005.

National emissions are preliminarily estimated to be 467 Mt CO₂-e in the year to June 2023, an increase of 0.9% on the previous year to June. On a quarterly basis, national emissions are preliminarily estimated to be 116 Mt CO₂-e in trend terms, a decrease of 0.7% on the previous quarter. This is driven mainly by decreases in the electricity, stationary energy (excluding electricity) and fugitive emissions sectors.

Quarterly emissions

The interactive dashboard presents national emissions estimates from September 2004 to March 2023. 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.

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.