Each year, Australian corporations that meet certain thresholds must report their emissions and energy information under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme. This captures about 60 per cent of Australia’s total emissions.
Although in 2016–17 emissions reductions were reported in the electricity sector, it remains the largest emitting industry in Australia accounting for more than half (52.4 per cent) of all reported scope 1 emissions.
Electricity production and emissions intensity of electricity generators
The ratio of emissions to electricity generation depends largely on the fuel source, with brown coal producing more emissions per unit of electricity than other fuel types. Emissions intensity is a way of measuring the amount of emissions from each unit of electricity produced.
This graph shows reported electricity production and emissions intensity for the largest 20 electricity generators in 2016–17. Of these, 17 are powered by coal, which is comparable to the results in 2015–16.