Anomaly due to carbon accounting rules, says Climate Action Tracker, as it accused Australia of going to ‘considerable diplomatic effort’ to ‘hide’ its true emissions levels
Australia may be able to increase its industrial emissions by 26% by 2020 and still easily meet its Kyoto protocol targets, new analysis released at the Lima climate talks suggests.
The reason for the apparent anomaly is because it has secured a succession of advantageous deals on how land use is credited in carbon accounting rules, according to the Climate Action Tracker group.
Industrial emissions are likely to be 26% above 2000 levels in 2020, or 47–59% higher since 1990, the group claims in a policy briefing.
But the research shows that Australia will be technically able to meet its legal Kyoto target, a 5% cut on 2000 levels by 2020.
Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, part of the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) group, said: “It has become increasingly apparent that whenever Australia has talked of committing to reducing emissions, what it really means is that it will continue to increase emissions from fossil fuel and industry sources.”
Australian negotiators in Lima have been arguing against an amendment made two years ago in Doha about the exclusion of deforestation from the definition on emissions – a technical fight which could increase the emission reductions Australia needs to make by 2020 by a 2%. A decision on the issue has been deferred to June.
According to CAT, Australia uses complicated rules around the way that land-clearing is included in the greenhouse gas accounting system – known as land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) – to make it appear that cuts will be met.
