Scope 3 and Human Rights Hub
CLIMATE CHANGE AND CARBON EXPORTS: AUSTRALIA'S SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS The human rights case for phasing out Australian coal and LNG production and exports.
Australia's Scope 3 emissions are contributing to global temperature rise, and exacerbating a range of harmful climate-related social and environmental impacts. Australia's climate
Australia is the largest exporter of LNG and of coal (by volume) in the world. Emissions from the combustion of Australia's exported fossil fuel products are directly contributing to the climate crisis, and to devastating human rights impacts in Australia. Australia's domestic consumption of LNG and coal is steadily declining as it makes the transition to a renewable energy-based economy.
Its decarbonisation pathway promises to be a fairly straightforward one compared to most other countries. Very high levels of economic development, abundant sources for renewable energy, and reserves of key transition minerals present enormous opportunity to expedite its energy transition and navigate the current climate crisis if the appropriate political will is applied to the task.
and natural landscape make it highly vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change, including extended heatwaves, altered rainfall patterns, sea level rise and extreme weather events such as droughts, fires and floods. These impacts will not only affect Australia’s physical environment, but also present major health and social threats to human wellbeing as identified in the recent 2021 State of the Environment Report.[4]
In stark contrast, Australia's exports of LNG and of coal are increasing.
Australia is already the world's largest exporter of LNG and of coal (by volume). As of October 2021, the Australian federal government reported 114 new coal and gas projects in the pipeline. More recently, it announced the the release of a further 46,000 square kilometres for oil and gas exploration. Almost all new production will be for export. Australia's scope 3 emissions from fossil fuel exports are already significantly larger than all of its domestic emissions, and this gap will continue to grow inline with projected increases in production and export. Australia's domestic emissions account for approximately 1.4 percent of global emissions,[1] but when scope 3 emissions from Australia's fossil fuel exports are added to those domestic emissions, the total figure rises to around 5 percent of global emissions.[2] If current government and industry projections for fossil fuel exports are realised, within 7 years around 13 percent (or higher) of global CO2e emissions would be attributable to Australian fossil fuels, principally from coal exports.[3]
Figure right: Graph showing Australia's domestic emissions against the CO2 potential of its fossil fuel exports. Sourced from Tom Swann, High Carbon From a Land Down Under, The Australia Institute, 2019.
[1] Tom Swann, High Carbon From a Land Down Under, The Australia Institute, 2019, at 1 and 5.
[2] Climate Analytics, ‘Evaluating the significance of Australia’s global fossil fuel carbon footprint’, July 2019, at 11.
What are Scope 3 emissions? 'Scope 3' emissions are all those indirect emissions in an entity’s value chain occurring from sources not owned or controlled by the entity (e.g. emissions resulting from the combustion of products sold). Applying this to the country context, Scope 3 emissions include the emissions released from the combustion of exported fossil fuel products.
[3] Climate Analytics, note 2, at 4 and 22.
[4] B. Trewin, D. Morgan-Bulled and S. Cooper, Australia State of the Environment report, Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2021.