Policy & Planning

Chart of the Day: Breaking down Australia’s household and trade emissions

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Saul Griffith and his team at Rewiring Australia have done the most original and thought provoking research on Australia’s emissions that I have seen in some years.

I have publicised a couple of times, and tried to live up to, their decarbonising the household analysis, the main point of which is that the biggest contribution to household emissions are typically sourced from the car you drive.

But I think Griffith’s analysis of trade emissions and domestic emissions is equally profound.

So I just present here two graphs copy and pasted from Rewiring Australia.

I think the graphs convey their own message far better than anything I could write, other than to repeat Saul’s observation that the Trade Emissions noted below reflect only scope 1 & 2 emissions.

Which means they don’t include all the emissions created when those coal and gas products are finally burned after being transported overseas, nor do they include the emissions of getting them to those markets.

Please click to expand

David Leitch is a regular contributor to Renew Economy and co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. He is principal at ITK, specialising in analysis of electricity, gas and decarbonisation drawn from 33 years experience in stockbroking research & analysis for UBS, JPMorgan and predecessor firms.

David Leitch

David Leitch is a regular contributor to Renew Economy and co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. He is principal at ITK, specialising in analysis of electricity, gas and decarbonisation drawn from 33 years experience in stockbroking research & analysis for UBS, JPMorgan and predecessor firms.

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