NSW bucks national trend for greenhouse gas emissions  

Somewhat surprisingly, the SMH reports that CO2 emissions in NSW dropped last year (unlike the rest of the country, or every other year for many decades) - NSW bucks national trend for gas emissions.

THE amount of greenhouse gases pumped out by energy generation and transport fell in NSW last year, bucking the national trend.

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.