The heat may have gone out of the carbon accountability debate with the recent shelving of the proposed Australian emissions trading scheme until 2013... but the bogey of climate change has not disappeared. At present, Australia is on target to restrict its greenhouse gas emissions to 108% of 1990 levels, but as part of the Copenhagen Accord it has also pledged to cut emissions from 5-25% below the 2000 level (measured at 552.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) by 2020. The latest figuresfrom the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGGI) show Australia is 1% ahead of its Kyoto commitment having emitted 553Mt CO_2-e in the 2008 accounting year. The energy sector is still by far the largest emitter, contributing 75.4%, but the agriculturalsector remains in second place producing 16.3% of the national total. What is most important to note is that since 1990 there has been a significant increase in emissions by the stationary energy, transport, fugititive (mainly mining and petroleum) and industrial sectors while the agriculture sector's emissions have remained virtually unchanged, figure 1. Livestock emissions have actually declined since 1990. fieure 2.
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