Greenhouse gas rising

DOCUMENTS obtained by the Australian Conservation Foundation have forced the Federal Government to release damning figures showing a rise in greenhouse gas emissions last year, despite falls across the electricity and transport sectors.

The update, published yesterday, showed an overall rise of 1.4% in the year to December compared to 2015.

The biggest increase was in fugitive emissions – leaks during production and distribution of fossil fuels – which rose 6%.

The leakage was tied to an increase in natural gas production with new LNG facilities coming online.

There was a spike of 4.6% from stationary energy – energy used on the spot such as home heating, powering industrial processes or refining petroleum.

The agriculture, waste and industrial sectors also had increases in emissions.

Electricity generation was still the largest source of emissions at 35% after a 0.3% reduction over the year.

The figures were released after the ACF found the Turnbull government was sitting on almost a year’s worth of pollution data.

Fairfax Media reported that documents obtained under freedom of information by the ACF showed the government had not published data on greenhouse pollution for the two quarters leading up to the end of last year.

ACF head Kelly O’Shanassy said the government was going to “extreme lengths” to remove global warming from the political agenda.

But Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg used the release of the data to reject Fairfax’s claims the government was keeping it secret.