Emissions are falling in the power sector - for now.
Steam towers at a power station. Emissions are falling in the power sector - for now.







Australia posted its biggest annual reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions in 24 years of records in 2013 as the carbon tax helped
drive a large drop in pollution from the electricity sector.



The latest greenhouse gas inventory,
released online without fanfare by the federal government, showed
annual emissions excluding changes in land use were estimated at 538.4
million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent in 2013, down 0.8 per cent
on the previous year.




While the final figures may be revised, the annual drop is
likely to exceed the only two other years of emissions falls – in 2009
and 2010 – since the tally began in 1990.



The electricity sector reported emissions fell 5 per cent
last year, with all but one other sector showing an increase. The carbon
tax has its most direct impact on power generators, which account for
about one-third of Australia’s emissions outside changes to forest
cover.




The carbon price, now at $24.15 a tonne, will rise to $25.40 a
tonne from next month and will apply until its likely scrapping when
the new Senate votes on the Abbott government’s repeal bills, expected
soon after July 1.



The government’s climate policies have been in the spotlight
as Prime Minister Tony Abbott headed to Washington this week, soon after
President Barack Obama introduced the most ambitious emissions cuts in
US history – forcing power plants to slash 2005-level emissions 30 per
cent by 2030.



Mr Abbott, forced to defend the government’s alternative
policy to a carbon tax based on paying polluters to curb emissions, said
he would avoid climate action that would “clobber the economy”.



But Greens leader Christine Milne said: “The price on
pollution is working and it is time Prime Minister Tony Abbott and
Environment Minister Greg Hunt stopped lying to Australia and the
world. 



“The government is trying to hide the fact that the price on
pollution is the cheapest and most effective way to do something about
global warming, and mitigate the future extreme storms, droughts and
floods that will ravage Australia over the coming decades.”



A spokesman for Mr Hunt said national emissions had fallen
only 0.1 per cent in the first full year of the carbon tax, showing that
the price “does not work”.



“Comparing years with and without the carbon tax, we see a
negligible difference in emissions,” he said. “We're implementing a
policy that will actually work.”



Electricity emissions



Since the start of the carbon tax in July 2012, total carbon
emissions from the National Electricity Market – which serves eastern
Australia – have fallen 17.2 million tonnes, or about 11 per cent,
according to Hugh Saddler of energy consultancy Pitt & Sherry.



Slumping electricity demand, in part because of closures of
aluminium smelters and other manufacturing, has contributed to the
emissions drop.



The carbon price, though, has also discouraged some energy
use while spurring more production from low-carbon energy sources,
particularly wind and hydro.



However rising gas prices will prompt a switch to coal-fired
power plants in coming months, suggesting emissions falls from the power
sector are likely to taper off even if demand extends its slump, Dr
Saddler said.



“I don’t think it will continue,” Dr Saddler said. “It’s as good as it gets.”



John Connor, chief executive of the Climate Institute, said
the drop in 2013 emissions indicated existing policies were doing the
intended job.



“We have a stable, set-and-forget default mechanism, that’s going to work,” Mr Connor said.



By contrast, the government was “ripping away” at other
policies curbing emissions, with plans to scrap the Australian Renewable
Energy Agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corp, and energy efficiency
programs.



Any weakening of the Renewable Energy Target, now under
review by a government-appointed panel led by climate change doubter
Dick Warburton, would also undermine emissions reduction efforts, Mr
Connor said. On current settings, the mandatory clean energy goal will
cut emissions by another 70 million tonnes by 2020, he said.



Research released this week by RepuTex, a markets
consultancy, estimated the government’s main climate policy – the
Emissions Reduction Fund – may only meet a third of the emissions
reduction challenge if Australia is to cut 2000 levels by 5 per cent by
2020.



Even if the government spends most of the $2.55 billion
earmarked for the ERF by 2020 – with only $1.147 billion set aside in
the budget for the coming four years – the fund will likely only achieve
about 30-120 million tonnes of carbon abatement by the end of the
decade, RepuTex estimated.



Mr Hunt has said Australia will easily meet the 5 per cent
reduction goal, and was reported by News Corp on Friday saying the rural
sector may account for as much as $1.9 billion, or about
three-quarters, of the ERF, mostly through the carbon farming scheme.