South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting
The South Australian Government has set goals to reduce South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030*, and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
* The government is seeking to legislate an interim target of at least 60% net emissions reduction by 2030 (from 2005 levels). Learn more about amending South Australia's Climate Legislation.
Progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
South Australia is making good progress towards its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. In the 2022 financial year, South Australia emitted 15.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2-e). In 2021-22 a 57% decrease in total net emissions from 2004-05 was recorded.
South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory
The following greenhouse gas emissions information is provided by the Australian Government. The State and Territory Greenhouse Gas Inventories (STGGI) provide an overview of annual greenhouse gas emission estimates for each Australian state and territory. It is a disaggregation of the emission estimates in the National Inventory Report submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) each year.
The Australian Government regularly revises the inventory emission factors and methodologies when new information or more accurate methodologies and data become available. When this occurs, they are required to revise the whole time series back to the 1990 financial year to ensure consistency. As a result, the revised inventory supersedes all previously published estimates and are not comparable year on year.
Sources of greenhouse gas emissions based on STGGI categories include:
- Transport
- Agriculture
- Industrial processes
- Energy Industries
- Manufacturing industries and construction
- Fugitive emissions from fuels
- Other energy
- Waste
Figure 1 below shows the contribution of each emission source to total net greenhouse gas emissions for South Australia in the 2022 financial year. LULUCF includes both emissions sources and sinks (i.e. sequestration of carbon) and when combined provide a net figure.
Figure 2 below shows the change in greenhouse gas emissions in South Australia from each source from financial years 2005 to 2022, and the overall net emissions trend over this period.
Another way of presenting greenhouse gas emissions for South Australia is to breakdown emissions by key economic sector (Figure 3). This information is derived from the greenhouse gas information provided by the Commonwealth Government. This breakdown supports the South Australian Government to develop policies and initiatives based on understanding of emissions across economic sectors.
Figure 4 shows a state by state comparison for greenhouse gas emissions per capita.
South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting
Under Section 7 of the Climate Change and Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Act 2007 the Minister for Environment and Water prepares progress reports on the operation of the Act including information on South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenhouse emission sources based on the State and Territory Greenhouse Gas Inventories categories
Energy sector emissions are broken down into the following categories:
Energy industries - the combustion of fuel in electricity generation, petroleum refining, gas production and solid fuel manufacture.
Transport – road transportation (passenger cars, trucks, and buses), domestic aviation, marine navigation and railways.
Manufacturing industries and construction – direct emissions from fuel combustion in manufacturing industries, ferrous and non-ferrous metals production, plastics production, construction and non-energy mining.
Other energy sectors – direct fuel combustion in the residential, commercial and institutional sectors, including energy used in mobile equipment in agriculture, forestry, fishing and military sectors.
Fugitive emissions from fuels – emissions other than energy use including in mining activities and oil and gas sector operations (including venting, flaring, exploration, extraction, production, processing and transmission).
Agriculture emissions come from livestock industries (enteric fermentation and manure management) and agricultural soils, including fertilizer use. These emissions are influenced by various factors, such as market conditions and seasonal climatic conditions such as drought.
Industrial process emissions are generated by the food and beverage industry, as well as the metals, chemicals, and minerals industries (e.g., cement). This category also includes emissions from the use of halocarbons in refrigeration and sulphur hexafluoride in electricity supply and distribution. Industrial process emissions are emissions-intensive and hard to decarbonise, because there is not yet readily available low or zero emissions alternatives, new technology is not yet available or requires significant behavioural changes over coming decades.
The waste sector primarily contributes emissions from municipal solid waste disposal and wastewater treatment and discharge. Emissions from solid waste disposal are influenced by methane recovery and recycling rates, and alternative waste treatment methods. Wastewater treatment emissions are driven by changes in industry production, population loads on centralized treatment systems, and the amount of methane recovered for combustion or flaring.
The Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) sector includes both emission sources and carbon sinks. Emissions stem from deforestation, while sinks include regrowth on deforested land, plantations and natural regeneration, activities on cropland and grassland and a small amount from harvested wood products. This sector experiences significant fluctuations over time due to land management activities. Emissions from this source can also often reduce or increase over the whole time series from year to year due to improvements in methodologies.
Emission sources based on economic sector breakdown
STGGI emissions data has been re-allocated to align with key economic sectors as follows:
- Emissions data for waste, transport, energy generation (mostly energy industries) and land use sinks (LULUCF) sectors are consistent with STGGI categories.
- Manufacturing sector includes the majority of STGGI Industrial Processes category and relevant fuel combustion emissions from the STGGI Energy category.
- Resources sector includes STGGI Fugitive emissions from fuels and relevant fuel combustion emissions from the STGGI Energy category.
- Agriculture sector includes STGGI Agriculture emissions plus relevant fuel combustion emissions from the STGGI Energy category.
- The built environment sector combines relevant emissions from the STGGI Energy and Industrial processes categories.
