The Price of Access
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.
18 thoughts on “Australia’s greenhouse emissions surge”
klewso
June 6, 2019 at 1:32 pmAngus, maybe – if you hold that graph up-side down…..?
Marcus Hicks
June 6, 2019 at 1:46 pmAngus should be in jail for his role in #watergate
Marcus Hicks
June 6, 2019 at 2:04 pmWill the media actually start holding morons like Taylor to account for their stupid statements?
TheRabidHamster
June 6, 2019 at 2:12 pmTailor 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.
Fairmind
June 6, 2019 at 2:41 pmWell 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.
kyle Hargraves
June 6, 2019 at 2:54 pm“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.
TheRabidHamster
June 6, 2019 at 5:42 pmHave total emissions been rising for the last four years or not?
kyle Hargraves
June 6, 2019 at 8:18 pmOk – 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?
TheRabidHamster
June 7, 2019 at 8:34 amThe 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.
kyle Hargraves
June 7, 2019 at 12:41 pmFirstly, 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.
[email protected]
June 6, 2019 at 4:17 pmUnsure what is happening in Crikey.I am a member but every year I am told I am not or my membership is due when it is not.
My old email was [email protected] and is now gmail.Is this the problem ?
I am due to sign on again in August I believe?
Truyth
June 6, 2019 at 5:22 pmNow do China and India. Of course you won’t, as it would show how meaningless Australia’s emissions are.
TheRabidHamster
June 6, 2019 at 6:34 pmYou are advocating that Australia take its cues from 2 countries, one of which still tolerates vast swathes of its population crapping in the street and the other which has smog so thick you could cut it with a knife. You must be a Liberal voter.
kyle Hargraves
June 6, 2019 at 7:17 pmAlso germane to your comment of 17:42, its a matter of arithmetic RH.
If this damned site had an upload function (which I asked for something like three years ago) I could provide a chart of ANY one of the top 8 polluters AND then the output of OZ could be plotted on the SAME scaled (Y) axis. You might need a change in prescription to in order to see the output of Oz against the X axis.
This is precisely what would have been evident had Bernie’s chart been plotted with the Y axis beginning at zero (ffs).
There are considerably more to worry about than the crap that BK has shown everyone; disingenuous as it is! Try pissing into the ocean (or a lake) and note the effect when next your fishing. That’s Oz v. the world in terms of emissions! Ok. its about 1.6% but the illustration serves its purpose.
For the “Nth” time : climate change and global emissions are real issues but we can have a beer with Abbott as to what Australia needs to do about it. Let’s solve some real domestic problems; many of which have been identified by other contributors. The emissions of Oz are negligible and its idiotic to bang on about it. Solve something that matters.
TheRabidHamster
June 6, 2019 at 7:27 pmAny number of issues can simultaneously be tackled. Pissing in the ocean or crapping in the street it is still disingenuous to point to a basket case in India and a totalitarian state dressed in the coat of modernity as China is, as the trigger for our own action.
kyle Hargraves
June 6, 2019 at 8:31 pm.mmm agreed as to objectives but just WHAT do you anticipate being achieved by this time next year RH?.
Secondly, the discussion concerns relative orders of magnitude and NOT the municipal effectiveness of India. If Australia reverted to hunting and gathering tomorrow it would NOT make a damn of difference to global emissions.
As to China, let’s see if the man in the street is better of in five years in China than his contemporary in Australia. Any city of circa 6 millon+ compares with a Western city now. As to infrastructure and pensions (age 60 in China) China is decades ahead whereas 25 years ago they were both on a par (more or less).
There is noting like a chat with someone on the opposite end of the rope RH. 🙂
Lorry Driver
June 6, 2019 at 5:59 pmThe government doesn’t have to worry about this global warming thingo, after all it’s a hoax and soon they will all rise in the rapture at the end of times as the chosen few.
AR
June 6, 2019 at 6:48 pmWho knew a canter was really rapid hand over fist ascent?