<
https://theconversation.com/sleight-of-hand-australias-net-zero-target-is-being-lost-in-accounting-tricks-offsets-and-more-gas-229479>
"In announcing Australia’s support for fossil gas all the way to 2050 and
beyond, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pushed his government’s commitment
to net zero even further out of reach.
When we published our analysis in December on
Climate Action Tracker, a
global assessment of government climate action, we warned Australia was
unlikely to achieve its net zero target, and rated its efforts as “poor.”
That’s because Australia’s long-term emissions reduction plan – released under
the Morrison Coalition government and not yet revised by the Albanese Labor
government – resorts to unrealistic technological fixes and emissions offsets.
But it’s also because Labor’s legislated target of a 43% emission cut by 2030
is not aligned with a 1.5°C pathway to net zero by 2050. Studies now show we
need around a 70% reduction in net emissions – including the land use, land-use
change and forestry sector – by 2030 to put Australia on track to net zero by
2050.
Why is this? Emissions from fossil fuel use, industry, agriculture and waste
(for brevity, fossil fuel and industry) are the main driver of global warming.
Most studies show these emissions (excluding land use) need about 50% reduction
below 2005 levels by 2030 to be on path to net zero by 2050.
But when we take the government’s projections for how much carbon the land use
sector will soak up by 2030 into account, the cuts required for fossil fuel and
industry emissions are even sharper: around a 70% fall in net emissions by 2030
to give us any chance of reaching net zero by 2050.
Policies designed to increase gas use and production for domestic use and
export will make this harder still. Emissions from gas in Australia, including
domestic use and the emissions from liquefying natural gas so it can be
exported as LNG totalled about 24% of emissions in 2022. Processing gas into
LNG accounted for about 9% of national emissions."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
