Australia’s greenhouse emissions have soared in new data belatedly released by the government nearly a week after it was required to.
The quarterly update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the December 2018 quarter — due to be released last week — shows that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, emissions reached 135.2 megatonnes (Mt), up from 134.1 Mt in the September 2018 quarter.
That’s the highest level of seasonally adjusted emissions since December 2012 and shows the continuing surge in greenhouse emissions since the Abbott government removed Australia’s carbon-pricing system and failed to replace it with any meaningful greenhouse abatement policies. Overall, emissions rose 0.7% over 2018, taking Australia ever further away from its unambitious, Abbott-era emissions abatement targets for 2030.
Worse, the Environment Department has revised upwards emissions figures from recent years since its previous report, meaning Australia has been pumping even more emissions into the atmosphere historically than previously assumed.
As is now standard, the government has sought to hide the increase by highlighting per capita emissions — a meaningless figure in terms of overall impact on climate. “This is a substantial global contribution to be proud of,” climate denialist Energy Minister Angus Taylor declared about the figures. Taylor’s office had earlier leaked the overdue figures to News Corp as the basis for a softball interview.
Save this EOFY while you make a difference
Australia has spoken. We want more from the people in power and deserve a media that keeps them on their toes. And thank you, because it’s been made abundantly clear that at Crikey we’re on the right track.
We’ve pushed our journalism as far as we could go. And that’s only been possible with reader support. Thank you. And if you haven’t yet subscribed, this is your time to join tens of thousands of Crikey members to take the plunge.
Editor-in-chief
Leave a comment
Angus, maybe – if you hold that graph up-side down…..?
Angus should be in jail for his role in #watergate
Will the media actually start holding morons like Taylor to account for their stupid statements?
Tailor is apparently one of the smartest operators in the Coalition Government. A fact which is almost as alarming as this Governments inability to formulate a Climate policy that in any way works.
He’s a dud, they are duds and we are duds for voting them back in.
Well they are doing pretty well on a few fronts.
Successfully creating an Aussie Gestapo, then putting a vindictive bully like Dutton in charge of it, is an impressive achievement that we can all now enjoy.
And the rent-seekers and oligarchs all seem pretty happy with the LNP-IPA team too.
“emissions have soared” ? Really Bernie? Stretching the truth for a salesman qua reporter is one thing but being disingenuous is quite another thing!
For anyone who gives a damn (1) redraw the graph with (dependent) Y axis commencing from zero.
Then (2) consider the relative difference (or the absolute difference) of the max and min Y values and compare it to the real world emissions and CALCULATE the (percentage) difference!
Bernie, you have NO right to claim any moral ground on any topic at all after this Soviet era-type submission.
Have total emissions been rising for the last four years or not?
Ok – I’ll rewrite the entire article (given that some are not happy)
The relative change between 134.1Mt and 135.2Mt is 0.82% Someone must have belched or broken wind. Assuming (by eye) that emissions were 133.5Mt at Dec 2013 the increase to date is 1.3% Take a bow Australia. The decline from about 154Mt to 133.5 is 15.4% which is nothing when the scale of the major emitters is measured not in hundreds of mega-tonnes but thousands of mega-tonnes. Oz is on a par with Canada for
roughly the same population and for which the country ought to be elated.
As an aside, if there was a general increase in wages of 0.82% for those on $50k or less just how many on the staff of Crikey would describe the increase as a “soaring” increase?
The staff on crikey might not refer to the increase in wages as soaring but the Liberals who have admitted to a policy of stagnant wages growth certainly would. Imagine then how they would describe them if their policy was actually to reduce those wages in a meaningful way. The language would be hysterical.
Firstly, RH, I note that it is the “aside” that has caught your eye and not the essence of the reply; but no matter.
The collective arm of capitalism HAS reduced real wages globally. For the “Nth” time, static wages are a global first world phenomenon. ANY chart from ANY county that represents real wages from year 2000 has the same profile. The USA is the “model” example. Trump, a Republican (if only by name), was elected in most states. The pollsters and even Aunty, along with The Guardian, were in denial there too!
Secondly, nill wage growth is NOT a circumstance for which the Lib-Nat brigade can claim credit. As I say, the profile is representative, globally, for (almost) two decades. Yeah – there is a notable reporter who seldom misses an opportunity
to claim otherwise (and, as per this article, has a similar preoccupation with the emissions of Australia) and does have a notable “devotee” catchment but be that as it may.
Thirdly, its interesting to observe that the last time the global workforce was as compliant as it is now was during the Great Depression. The cause has multiple antecedents which I have expressed, at length, elsewhere on these pages.