The Australian Government has released its third Annual Climate Change Statement.
The statement reports progress on the government’s climate change and energy initiatives in 2024.
It’s showing clear progress towards Australia’s climate goals for 2024. Here’s what’s going on:
this year, renewable energy is expected to power around 40% of Australia’s biggest electricity market
$22 billion was announced under the Future Made in Australia plan which will support the transition to a net zero economy
by 2030, emissions are projected to be 42.6% below 2005 levels in the baseline scenario.
Reducing emissions on the path to net zero
Electricity generation is Australia’s largest source of emissions, so shifting to renewable electricity is essential. It means we can reduce emissions in other areas, like transport and industry, by switching to electric options.
Transport is the nation’s third largest source of emissions. The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is set to cut emissions from new passenger cars by over 60% by 2030 – and the air will be cleaner and healthier.
The government’s also been working with big industries on cutting down their emissions since last year, leading to real progress in 2023–24.
Read more about emission reduction across all sectors and progress on policy initiatives in the statement.
Supporting net zero industry
The government’s Future Made in Australia plan will also help to grow new industries, powered by renewable energy. It will support:
manufacturing of clean energy technologies, including solar PV and batteries
production of renewable hydrogen, green metals and low carbon liquid fuels.
Headline stats and facts
Our latest Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory shows emissions were 440.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-e) in the year to June 2024. This is a decrease of 0.7% (2.9 Mt CO2-e) compared with the previous year.
That’s the same as taking roughly 900,000 cars off the road for one year.
With 6 years until 2030, Australia’s decarbonisation journey is well underway. Australia’s emissions are 28% below 2005 levels.
The future
The 2024 Emissions Projections reports on progress towards our 2030 target of 43% below 2005 levels.
This year’s projections demonstrate that we overachieve the 2030 target on a budget basis and are just shy of our point in time target. We expect to see larger declines in emissions as the decade progresses.
