GREENHOUSE gas emissions from energy use in Australia's eastern states fell 1.8 per cent last year, aided by slower economic growth, reduced burning of coal and a warmer winter.
But an analysis by the Climate Group, to be released today, warns that further cuts in the country's carbon footprint are likely to be harder to achieve without new policies to cut emissions, particularly as economic activity picks up.
Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Climate Group director Rupert Posner said if the trend in 2009 continued through the following decade, by 2020 emissions in the energy sector would be about 20 per cent lower than today. "Unfortunately, this isn't the whole story as low rates of [economic] growth have helped keep emissions down," he said.
"As the economy returns to more robust levels of growth, continued reductions will be much harder to achieve unless we start to change the way we produce and use energy in a much more meaningful way."
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