Thread by @simonahac

i'm really cross about gov't propaganda claiming australia "has made good progress in reducing #emissions".

[i added the emojis because the taxpayer funded ad is just so misleading]

everybody knows @AngusTaylorMP & team habitually lie to us, but do you know *how*? 🧵 #auspol

the main source of carbon emissions, and therefore global heating, is burning #FossilFuels — and we've done next to nothing to wean ourselves off them.

putting land management aside for a sec, over the last 15 years (since FY2005) australia's emissions have dropped by only 2.9%.

sure, we've made decent progress reducing electricity emissions (by replacing coal with renewables), but it's largely been undone by increases in "stationary energy" emissions (largely gas used for heating) and "fugitive emissions" (methane leaked by coal & gas companies).

hang on… but the gov't says emissions are down 20%, not ~2.9%. what's the discrepancy?

well, we also have emissions from our land management — mostly due to land clearing.

we _were_ clearing a lot, but strict regulations slowed it right down around about a decade ago.

if we count less land clearing as emissions reduction*, and offset that against our shitty progress on emissions elsewhere, it makes us look less bad.

this is how the gov't says emissions fell by 20% over 15 years.

*don't get me wrong, it's good we're not clearing as much.

looking at the change in each sector since 2005, land management and electricity emissions are down (as discussed).

agriculture's down due to drought, transport's down due to covid.

…but other than shutting a few coal power stations, we *haven't* been transforming the economy.

…we stopped the most egregious land clearing, but you can't stop something that's already stopped — so we can't hide behind that again.

the govt's own projections (issued dec 2020) have us reducing emissions by just 3% over this decade.

i designed this tool (built by friend & data viz legend @chienleng) basically to tell this story. it's very fresh, so please excuse the rough edges, and have a play:

(instructions & more info coming soon.)
opennem.org.au/emissions/au/