Australia's deception about its LULUCF forestry

Australia makes use of Land Use, Land Use change and Forestry (LULUCF) credits as part of its national emissions profile while most countries do not include this area of emissions. We have done this since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol Agreement when we threatened to wreck the agreement if these emissions weren't included. Subsequently a clause to allow counting of these emissions was included, and it was colloquially known as the Australia clause.

Australia has long used this clause based on land use emissions in the past to allow a target for Australia  to actually grow our emissions, while nearly all other nations had targets to reduce their emissions.

So Australia has cruised along without doing much work in any other sector in decarbonisation, based upon historical reduction in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry emissions.

Pretty shonky and hardly fair.

A recent remote sensing study has highlighted even further the shonky nature of carbon accounting in LULUCF emissions. The study is called 'Annual Maps of Forests in Australia from Analyses of Microwave and Optical Images with FAO Forest Definition', published 23 August.

Australia Under Increasing Pressure in Leadup to Glasgow UN Climate Conference | Richie Merzian

Via the Australia Institute:

The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Where is Australia positioned? With a neglectful approach towards the short term (2030) target and a non-committal 'preference' for net-zero by 2050, Australia needs to do more and will be under pressure from its international allies over the next few months. Does COP actually achieve much? Richie explains it's not a perfect forum but it's the best we have and they can result in incremental changes that build up over time. [Originally aired on Ticker News 23 August 2021]

Carbon Capture & Storage Failure | Spin Bin with Angus Taylor

Demystifying Carbon Capture and storage as advocated by Australia Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor. Decoding the spin with The Australia Institute Polly Hemming and Richie Merzian.

Despite billions in taxpayer funding over many years, carbon capture and storage has continued to fail every target set for it. However, that hasn't stopped the fossil fuel industry, and Minister Angus Taylor from continuing to spruik the technology as the solution to reducing emissions. Richie Merzian and Polly Hemming delve deep into what's gone wrong, and why the Government continues to support this fairytale solution on the latest episode of Spin Bin.