Australia risks becoming one of the world’s biggest climate polluters as its share in global greenhouse gas emissions may amount to 17 per cent by 2030, Australian Conservation Foundation’s (ACF) Climate Change and Clean Energy Program Manager Gavan McFadzean said in Moscow on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Berlin-based science and policy institute Climate Analytics published a study showing that Australia may be responsible for up to 17 percent of Paris Agreement compatible global carbon dioxide emissions in 2030.
“This report confirms Australia is on track to become one of the world’s worst contributors to climate damage,” McFadzean said, as quoted by the ACF.
The study also found that in 2017, Australia’s part in global carbon emissions from its use of fossil fuels equaled about 1.4 percent of global fossil fuel combustion emissions. However, altogether with fossil fuel exports, Australia was responsible for about 5 per cent of the global carbon footprint, which was the same level as Russia, the study noted.
According to the research, Australia is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the world, outrunning China by a factor of 9, the United States by a factor of 4 and India by a factor of 37.
