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The ACCC did a broad sweep of corporate environmental claims and found plenty of greenwashing. But let’s dive into one area: certification. Australia's 'Climate Active' The Australian Government's 'carbon neutral' certification scheme is called Climate Active. Here's how it works: Upshot: If companies buy enough offsets to cover their emissions, they are certified as 'carbon neutral' (effective immediately), even if real emissions are rising. Climate Active aims to use its currency — a cer

This week, fires ignited across the state. The Coolagolite blaze in Bega Valley burned 6,700ha of land. We want to share with you some background on the fire data we’ve collected so far, and what we hope to do. You can find it at the end of this email. This week, we’re going back to a big picture climate data topic: carbon budgets. Why bother to budget? Everyone understands a basic budget. You have a clear and limited resource that gets spent over time. In carbon budgets, the starting point

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) has said this summer’s bushfire risk is the highest since Black Summer in 2019-20. How is the state tracking? Let’s take a look. The current status Since July, about 11,600 hectares (116 km2) have burned in NSW bushfires. It's still very early in the season and the statutory Bush Fire Danger Period starts this weekend. But the data is useful for ongoing tracking and point-in-time comparisons. Below: Hectares (ha) destroyed by wildfire since 1974, by fire sea

As heatwaves swept through Australia’s southeast this week, we’ve been updating Australia’s climate stripes, also known as warming stripes. How to read climate stripes Climate stripes are minimalist by design. Their purpose is to tell a story about long-term trends, not datapoint details. Each stripe shows the difference in temperature from a baseline average. That is, the size of the anomaly. (That begs the question, what’s the baseline average? It’s complicated and there’s more on that bel

Last week, we sent a chart that showed Australia's emissions including and excluding the Land Use sector. It prompted many comments and questions. So, let’s do a deeper dive. What is 'Land Use'? When Australia reports its national greenhouse inventory, it divides emissions into five sectors. One of them is Land Use. (Its long name is Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry, aka LULUCF). LULUCF refers to human activities that make land either a source or sink of emissions. A sink is anything th

'Fossil fuels a requirement of human prosperity'. That's what Vivek Ramaswamy, a top-polling US Republican presidential candidate, said in the party's recent primary debate. (Fwiw, Ramaswamy is also a millennial, which means his views on climate change swim against the tide of 71% of his generation.*) In this week's climate data briefing, we ask if this is true for Australia. Does our nation's wealth depend on emissions? GDP v. Emissions Since 2005, Australia’s real GDP* has grown to around

Australia's net emissions are rising. Last Friday afternoon, the federal government published its quarterly greenhouse gas update. It showed yearly net emissions have increased. Let’s dig into the data. (Hate jargon? There’s a glossary at the end.) The big picture Australia’s yearly emissions to March were 0.1% higher than the previous year (465.9 Mt CO2-e*). Early estimates for the year to June show an increase of 0.9% (466.9 Mt CO2-e). Key Points: The big winner: Electricity Electr

In the last briefing, we looked at transport emissions. But that's just one key indicator. Another is energy intensity. Let's dive in ... Why energy intensity matters Energy intensity is the power we need to get a specific output. When it comes to transport, that output is moving people and stuff. Energy efficiency means we use less power to get the same result. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says improving energy efficiency is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to reduce emissions