Fossil fuelled-Australia’s climate policies still don’t stack up against G20, says report

Australia still has the highest per capita emissions of all countries in the G20 and has a long way to go to decarbonise, according to a new global report out today.

The Climate Transparency Report 2022 notes that fossil fuels still make up 91% of Australia’s overall energy mix, a full 10 percentage points above the (still poor) G20 average. The report also finds that Australia ranks particularly low in per capita transport emissions, which are around three times the G20 average.

And while the government has enshrined a new climate commitment of cutting emissions by 43% by 2030, its new Climate Act does not limit the expansion of new fossil fuel projects, which the report says undermines the commitment’s central aim.

The report also finds Australia has failed to adequately legislate to decarbonise the building sector, especially when it comes to retrofitting existing buildings.

The report recommends three key steps for Australia’s climate action. First, Australia must align its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to climate mitigation efforts with a 1.5°C warming scenario, as well as ramping up investments to help it meet its ‘fair share’ target.

Secondly, government policies should focus on driving emissions down rather than relying on offsetting. The report is particularly critical of Australia’s historical reliance on offsets to compensate for its high emissions.

“The Australian government policies need to focus on driving emissions down rather than relying on things like ineffective carbon offsets to compensate for the fossil fuel-intensive industry sector,” says Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, which led the Climate Transparency work.

The report also recommends the immediate abandonment of support for new and existing fossil fuel projects.

“Of particular concern is the continued support for gas and coal production, which will have an emissions impact well beyond our own shores,” says Hare.

The report also criticises Australia’s failure to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge at COP26. The pledge, signed by 111 countries, commits signees to reduce emissions of methane – a potent greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the warming power of CO2 over its first twenty years in the atmosphere – by 30% by 2030.

The report points out that Australia, a major contributor to global CO2 emissions, is also one of the most uniquely vulnerable countries to climate change. Between 2017 and 2021, the average summer temperatures experienced in Australia were 0.8C higher than the average global mean temperature increase of 0.3C.

Looking globally, the report warns that the compounding effects of a food and energy crisis are driving public attention away from the climate catastrophe, with alarming implications for climate policy.

“To keep the goals of the Paris Agreement within reach,” the report states, “the energy crisis must be used as a stepping-stone for the G20 to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis, to continue and deepen climate action, and to reverse the currently rebounding trend of GHG emissions.”

The report finds that all G20 members must enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the global emissions reduction effort to be compatible with 1.5C of warming, and quickly ramp up implementation of policies.