NSW bucks national trend for gas emissions

High petrol prices and a move towards diesel helped the state lower its carbon dioxide emissions by about half a million tonnes in 2008 compared with 2007, although NSW became even more dependent on burning coal to generate electricity.

Emissions from energy and transport in Queensland and Victoria, the two other states that make up the east coast electricity grid, still rose.

Last year the east coast released 19 per cent more carbon dioxide - which traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to climate change - than in 2000. NSW released just over 98 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Compared with 1990, the year usually used to calculate emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, emissions from NSW have risen 30 per cent. Since 1990 Queensland is up 116 per cent and Victoria 32 per cent, according to The Climate Group, which collated weekly figures from its national greenhouse indicator, based on electricity market data and fuel sales.

The figures mean households, industry and governments have a huge job ahead of them just to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions over the next few years, before meeting even the modest 5 per cent cuts now proposed for 2020.

"The reason there was a drop in NSW is that there were lower petroleum sales, so in that regard higher petrol prices may have played a small but useful role," said Rupert Posner, the non-profit group's Australian director. "At the same time there was actually an increase in emissions from coal-fired power stations."

In NSW, emissions from coal-fired power stations - the backbone of the electricity grid - increased by 1.5 million tonnes on the previous year, a rise of 0.7 per cent.

Electricity production went up by 1.3 per cent in response to public demand and a rising population. Production rose more quickly in Queensland and Victoria, reflecting the higher population growth rates in those states.

"We haven't started to see the turnaround we need yet," Mr Posner said. "What's clear from these figures is that Australia's dependence on coal is just not sustainable."

Petrol sales fell 9 per cent around the state last year, and sales of the less-polluting diesel fuel rose 2 per cent.

On average, the energy and transport sectors in NSW put 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent into the atmosphere each week last year. More energy was used during winter, as people turned on heating in their homes, and less power was used during the Christmas lull.

The Federal Government plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2010 to wind back emissions by making the nation's 1000 heaviest-polluting industries buy permits equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gas they release. They would therefore pay for their emissions.

The Government is committed to reducing national emissions by at least 5 per cent on 2000 levels over the next 12 years. It has said it will aim for deeper cuts if a binding global deal on carbon reduction is agreed to next year, although its proposed cuts for 2020 still fall short of the 25 to 40 per cent recommended by most climate scientists.