Booming renewables, lower gas use and more motorists driving cheaper to run cars have helped drive an 8.5 million tonne drop in Australia's emissions over the year to September 2025.
The drop represents a 1.9% reduction, one of the fastest rates outside of the COVID period, as falls in electricity, transport, stationary energy and fugitive emissions drove down Australia's overall emissions. This is the first decline in transport emissions since the pandemic.
This quarterly result is a 27.4% reduction from 2005 levels, the base year of our Paris Agreement commitments, keeping us on track to reach our 2030 climate targets. It reflects updated measurements for previous quarters as data becomes more precise but also confirms the downwards trend in emissions overall.
During this period Australia recorded several key milestones that are reflected in the downwards trend of emissions, with:
- Record highs of renewables in the grid delivering record lows for emissions per megawatt-hour,
- New EV sales more than tripling in three years to 13.1% of new cars sold in 2025,
- And new carbon capture and storage projects cutting emissions in the oil and gas sector.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the report confirmed Australia's emissions are heading in the right direction.
"Our commonsense approach, which includes Cheaper Home Batteries, more cheaper, cleaner energy and more choice of cheaper to run cars, is working to drive down emissions across the economy.
"We are on track to meet our climate targets if we stay the course and continue to lift our efforts.
"But this progress can all be undone if the Coalition get their way to drive up bills and pollution by stopping the renewables roll out and sweating ageing, unreliable coal.
"The Coalition's energy plan will cost Australians more."
Preliminary estimates for the year to December 2025 indicate a 4.3% drop in NEM emissions, with Australia's overall emissions estimated to be 27.6% below 2005 levels.
The quarterly update of Australia's emissions is available at National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Quarterly Update: September 2025
