National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: September 2017 (incorporating December 2017 quarter emissions from the National Electricity Market)

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.

This Quarterly Update provides:

• estimates of Australia's national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions up to the September quarter of 2017
• electricity emissions from the National Electricity Market (NEM) up to the December quarter 2017

Key data

Australia's annual emissions over the year to September 2017 are estimated to have increased 1.1 per cent, including the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector, to 531.9 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO₂-e). The expansion in LNG exports, which saw a production increase of 41.4 per cent over 2017, was the major contributor to this increase in emissions. Annual emissions are 2.8 per cent below emissions in 2000 (547.0 Mt CO₂-e) and 12.0 per cent below emissions in 2005 (604.7 Mt CO₂-e).

For the December quarter 2017, emissions from the NEM increased by 0.4 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis, and decreased 3.1 per cent in the year to December 2017 when compared to the previous year.

Emissions per capita, and the emissions intensity of the economy, were at their lowest levels in 28 years in 2017. Emissions per capita over the year to September 2017 have fallen 36.3 per cent since 1990, while the emissions intensity of the economy has fallen 59.3 per cent since 1990 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Emissions (including the land sector) per capita and per dollar of real GDP (2015-16 prices), 'unadjusted' annual emissions, year to September 2017

Source: Department of The Environment and Energy

Read more

• View all Quarterly Updates of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory
• Read how we track and report greenhouse gas emissions
• Read about how we project and estimate greenhouse gas emissions

Contact us

Email nationalgreenhouseaccounts [at] industry.gov.au

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