New reports released today show that Australia is producing record renewable electricity and that emissions are lower than when the Albanese Government took office, with the country on track to achieve our emissions reduction goals - if we continue the hard work to implement our policies and Peter Dutton doesn't side track Australia with his high polluting, $600 billion nuclear plan.
The figures are set out in the September 2024 Quarterly Update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, the latest Quarterly Carbon Market Reports (QCMR), and National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) data, released today by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Clean Energy Regulator.
The reports show:
- In 2024, Australia produced more renewable electricity than ever before, with 92,700 gigawatt hours of renewable energy going into grids across the country. This is an increase of more than 30% since 2021, with a record 46% of the electricity in the grid renewable in the last quarter of 2024.
- Daily records for renewable generation were also set with over 75% of electricity in the National Energy Market coming from renewables on 6 November 2024, and 85% renewables in Western Australia on 17 November.
- A record amount of solar, wind and other renewables came online across 2024, reaching 7.5GW capacity, up from 5.3GW in 2023. The amount of large-scale generation accredited was itself an Australian record at 4.3GW, as was 3.2GW of rooftop solar.
- Renewable investment continues at pace with an additional $9 billion of projects reaching financial investment decision last year. These will deliver an extra 4.3GW of new large-scale capacity once built and are estimated to deliver more than 10,000 new construction and installation jobs.
On emissions, the September 2024 Quarterly Update shows total emissions across all sectors were 0.5% or 2.2 million tonnes lower than the same period in 2023.
This is 7 million tonnes lower than the last year under the previous government (year to March 2022), which had lower than usual emissions due to COVID shutdowns.
With the transport sector continuing its post-COVID recovery, transport emissions were nine million tonnes higher than in the year to March 2022 - a key reason why New Vehicle Efficiency Standards commencing this year are so important.
Outside transport, other energy and industrial emissions are down 16 million tonnes over the same period.
Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions are now 29% below 2005 levels - the base year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target. The most recent Emissions Projections show emissions will continue reducing to 42.6% below 2005 levels by 2030.
In three years, the Albanese Government has turned around Australia's emissions trajectory and put the nation on track to meet its legislated targets - including through reforms such as those to the Safeguard Mechanism, which is working to reduce emissions from Australia's largest polluters.
This is reinforced by NGER data for 2023-24 which shows a reduction in direct emissions compared to 2022-23 for facilities such as electricity generators, retailers, and includes emissions not covered by the Safeguard Mechanism.
The reports come less than a week after the independent Climate Change Authority released analysis showing a pivot away from renewables to extend coal and build nuclear energy would lead to two billion tonnes more pollution to 2050. This is equivalent to 200 years of domestic aviation emissions and shows that under Peter Dutton, Australia would be abandoning climate action.
The Quarterly Update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: September 2024 can be found at: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/publications/national-greenhou…
The Clean Energy Regulator's NGER data is available at https://cer.gov.au/markets/reports-and-data/nger-reporting-data-and-reg…, and the latest QCMR at https://cer.gov.au/markets/reports-and-data/quarterly-carbon-market-rep….
Quotes attributable to Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen:
"The Albanese Government's plan is working - emissions are now lower than when the Coalition left office and renewable investment into our energy grid is at record levels. Collectively, Australia must stay the course and continue to lift our efforts to increase these reductions to 2030 and beyond.
"In contrast, Peter Dutton wants to cut critical services to fund a $600 billion nuclear plan which would be a sledgehammer to our climate progress. Peter Dutton wants to extend aging, unreliable coal fired power stations for decades while he works out how to build nuclear reactors - with households, business and industry paying the price with higher bills and reduced reliability."
