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Analysis of our performance against our purpose

Our purpose is to accelerate carbon abatement for Australia. We have continued to deliver against our purpose through the administration of our schemes to measure, manage, reduce, or offset Australia’s carbon emissions.

Carbon abatement from the schemes we administer has continued to rise:

  • Carbon abatement from the schemes we administer reached 51.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, up 6.7 million tonnes from 2018–19:
    • In the Emissions Reduction Fund, 15.5 million ACCUs were issued, surpassing the 13.7 million ACCUs issued in 2018–19.
    • For renewables, 21.7 million tonnes of abatement was delivered from the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target and 14.3 million tonnes from the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme in 2019–20, an increase of 6.5 and 32.7 per cent respectively from 2018–19.
  • In 2019, sufficient capacity was accredited to meet the 2020 Large-scale Renewable Energy Target of 33,000 gigawatt hours.
  • National Electricity Market emissions peaked in the National Electricity Market in 2008–09 with 187.4 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent1. Emissions have since fallen 23 per cent to 143.9 megatonnes2 of carbon dioxide equivalent for 2019–20.

Figure 4: Total carbon abatement from schemes we administer, 2019-20 [fn] Estimated carbon abatement (t CO2-e millions) across LRET (LGC adjusted), SRES (STC adjusted) and ERF (ACCU).

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Footnotes

  1. Data from Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, March 2017, data tables: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-march-2017↩
  2. Data from Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory March 2020, data tables: http://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-08/nggi-quarterly-update-march-2020-data-sources.xlsx↩
  3. Figure 4: Carbon abatement is estimated based on all ACCUs at the time they were issued, in addition to emissions reduction from all eligible generation under the Renewable Energy Target, regardless of the source of demand for units and certificates. Therefore, this estimate includes ACCUs that are not contracted to the Commonwealth. In order to convert the renewable generation into a carbon abatement equivalent value, it has been multiplied by the emissions intensity factor of the Australian electricity network. This is considered a conservative estimate. The alternative approach would use the weighted average emissions intensity of the coal and gas generation displaced by renewables, including self-generation of rooftop solar, which would be higher. More details on calculation methodology for abatement estimates are set out at http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/DocumentAssets/Pages/Quarterly-Carbon-Market-Report-workbook---March-Quarter-2020.aspx ↩

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https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/clean-energy-regulator/reporting-year/2019-20-3