Greg Jericho
Chief Economist

The June quarter greenhouse gas emissions have been released and you know they are good news because they were released on a Thursday morning, and not Friday afternoon.

One of the weird things about the greenhouse gas emission figures is that the government can release them when they want – so long as they do it within 5 months of the quarter being measured covered. Today’s release covers the June quarter, so they had till the end of November to release it. In the past this has meant releasing the bad news around 4pm Friday afternoon. 

But good news cannot wait! And in the June quarter annual emissions fell 2.1% over the past year, and in the June quarter there was a nice 0.9% drop, driven mostly by falls in electricity and fugitive emissions.

The drop in fugitive emissions is mostly from “reductions in natural gas venting emissions from new carbon capture and storage activities and a decline in production from underground coal mining.”

So yeah – less gas and coal is good, who knew?

The drop in electricity emissions came off the back of less coal and gas emissions and more wind and solar. Again, who would’ve guessed less coal and gas is good?

The overall picture is nice, but as with all things climate change, we need a bit of a broader look.. Yes, the 2.1% fall emissions is to be celebrated, but even if we take the trend of emissions since June 2023 (which was when they peaked under the Albanese govt), the pace is still far too slow to reach any of the government’s (very weak) targets:

That said, if the pace of emissions falls over the past year keep up, they will at least be chance to get there.

So yes, good news. But we should always remember to count the right things. The government will be saying that emissions are currently 28% below 2005 levels, but we should always remember that is because 2005 was a big year for land clearing, especially in Queensland. If we exclude land clearing (like every other nation does) our emissions falls since 2005 is just 4%

So good news, but long way to go, and while we keep approving new coal and gas mines, we need to also remember that while we might not be counting the emissions from gas and coal done overseas, they very much contribute to global emissions.