Australia's top ten polluters named - ACF

The Australian Conservation Foundation has released a report into our top polluters, and it's not pretty. Not surprisingly, 7 of them are energy companies burning coal for electricity, and the other three are mining. Notably, our emissions have higher intensity than China's.

Energy companies in the top ten polluters list are responsible for 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution, nearly all through scope 1 emissions. Scope 1 emissions are greenhouse gases resulting directly from an activity at a facility (or machine) owned by a company, for example, the emissions resulting from fuel combustion within a vehicle or a power plant. Scope 2 emissions are greenhouse gases associated with energy consumption by a facility, for example, the greenhouse gases associated with the purchase of electricity. 

The vast majority of scope 1 pollution comes from burning coal to generate electricity. While ACF recognises electricity as an essential service, the brown coal plants operated in Victoria owned by AGL Energy, EnergyAustralia and GDF Suez are highly emissions intensive, producing an average of 1.3 tonnes of CO2-e per megawatt hour of electricity, the highest level in any state. Hazelwood, owned by GDF Suez, was once rated the dirtiest power station in the developed world. 

The black coal plants owned by AGL Energy, Energy Australia, Origin Energy, Stanwell Corporation, CS Energy and Intergen are less polluting but remain inefficient by global standards. 

As a result, Australia has a higher emissions intensity from power generation than China and twice the emissions intensity of other OECD countries. PDF