Australian industries have made significant investments in new technologies - shielding businesses and jobs from global energy price shocks while delivering record reductions in carbon emissions.
New data released today confirms that emissions have fallen across heavy industry. Net emissions across facilities covered by the Government's Safeguard Mechanism fell 5.5% year on year and are now down over 12% from when our reforms began.
Onsite emissions are now 5.8 million tonnes lower than they were when our reforms were made two years ago, equivalent to taking over 2 million cars off the road or around 60% of domestic aviation emissions.
This is a clear sign that the Albanese Government's Safeguard Mechanism is working and on track to meet targets.
Industrial facilities are electrifying and relying more on sovereign renewable energy, as well as upgrading their facilities with technologies that trap harmful gases at the source.
These technology upgrades help to protect Australian industry from shocks to global energy prices in an increasingly uncertain international environment.
The number of facilities covered by the Safeguard Mechanism has also declined, as some businesses have successfully decarbonised to reduce their emissions below the policy's threshold.
The Government has also today released Australia's National Inventory Report for the 2023-24 financial year, and reflects new climate data and improvements in emissions calculation methodologies which has augmented land sector emissions.
Land sector emissions are subject to ongoing variability, reflecting both improvements in measurement technology and the impact of extreme weather events such as La Niña. Today's data reflects updated measurements for previous years as data becomes more precise but also confirms the downwards trend in emissions overall.
Outside of land, today's data confirms that emissions are down 7.2 million tonnes since 2022-23 across the economy, and 35.5 million tonnes less than 2018-19 before COVID lockdowns impacted transport emissions, a reduction of over 6%. Non-land emissions have been reducing at triple the rate achieved under the previous Coalition government.
Recent quarterly data shows non-land emissions are falling at one of the fastest rates recorded outside the COVID period, as falls in electricity, transport, stationary energy and fugitive emissions drove down Australia's overall emissions.
