Carbon emissions from the country’s main electricity grid have jumped at an annual rate of about 2 million tonnes in the past two months, the quickest pace in at least a decade, according to analysis by energy consultancy Pitt & Sherry.
Carbon emissions are climbing in the power sector. Photo: Andrew Quilty
The Age – Peter Hannam, Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald
The emissions surge analysis comes with the Abbott government due to announce its post-2020 carbon-cutting goals. It also comes as United States President Barack Obama unveiled new emissions reduction efforts largely aimed at the power sector.
The surge in emissions in June and July from the National Electricity Market (NEM) was equal to about 1.2 per cent at an annualised rate, and was triggered by the removal of the carbon price a year ago and a diversion of lower-emissions gas to more lucrative export markets.
“I don’t think I can see any [two-month] period when it’s over 1 per cent,” said Hugh Saddler, principal consultant with Pitt & Sherry, scanning data going back to 2005 when Tasmania joined the NEM. “And it’s probably some considerable time before that.”
The rebound in pollution from the electricity sector – which nationally accounts for about a third of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions – comes at an awkward time for the Abbott government.
The Coalition argues its $2.55 billion scheme is going to cut emissions more cheaply than the carbon tax it scrapped in July last year. The government is also expected to release its carbon emissions goals for post-2020 this month – a reduction task that will be tougher if power sector pollution rises.
Pressure for Australia to set an ambitious goal ahead of the Paris climate summit at the end of the year has also increased with the release overnight of Mr Obama’s Clean Power Plan aimed at cutting carbon emissions by 32 per cent on 2005 levels.
“It’s obvious we’re going in the other direction,” Dr Saddler said.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the post-2020 targets will be released soon.
“We welcome the action by the United States – and note that they are tackling climate change without a painful carbon tax,” Mr Hunt said.
However Mark Butler, the opposition spokesman on climate change, said the Abbott government’s policies were to blame for the jump in power-sector emissions, particularly “stalled investment in renewable energy, the removal of the carbon price – and the perpetrator of all this is because of [Prime Minister] Tony Abbott”.
“For as long as Tony Abbott is Prime Minister, carbon pollution will rise,” he said.
Greens deputy leader Larissa Waters linked the emissions jump to party donations: “Coal companies’ donations to the government are now paying off in a big way with the biggest surge of pollution in living memory.
“This surge in pollution can be added to the mountain of evidence that the carbon price worked beautifully,” Senator Waters said. “Pollution dropped as the economy expanded and unemployment was smaller then than it is now.”
Gas falls out
Black and brown coal accounted for 76.3 per cent of the NEM supply in July, up from 74.9 per cent in April, driving emissions higher as they supplanted lower emissions-intensive gas.
The share of gas over the three months dropped to 11.5 per cent from 12.6 per cent, Pitt & Sherry said.
Not only is gas being diverted to export markets, its production into a liquefied form requires a lot of energy – much of it coming from coal.
“There is an element of irony in the fact that production of LNG, much of which will be used to generate lower-emission electricity in the destination countries, is using large quantities of coal-fired electricity in Australia,” Pitt & Sherry said in its latest monthly Cedex report.
“In doing so, it is already on track to increase Australia’s emissions by between 1.5 and 2.0 million tonnes [carbon dioxide equivalent] per annum, a figure which is certain to get much bigger in the next two or so years.”
Gas-fired plants “are just falling out of the market”, Dr Saddler said.
Wind energy’s contribution to the NEM hit a record 14.4 per cent of supply on July 25. Its monthly share, though, is likely to change little from the current 5.4 per cent of the market given the recent turmoil in the renewable energy industry ahead of the recent cut in the 2020 target, which stymied new investment.
