Carbon Accounting and Tasmania – CO2 Emissions Skyrocket

A few days ago I published a post concerning the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors for the year to July 2014. I know most people will not get past page two of this 84 page document, which is a shame, since it exposes some of the little games people play with Carbon emissions.

If you look at Table 41 on page 76, you would find the following data, concerning Tasmanian CO2 emissions.

If you look carefully, you will see that the Scope 2+3 Emissions have gone up from a maximum of 0.07 kG CO2/kWh 0.14 in 2006/7. This is at least a doubling of the previous worst case. Since then it has got as high as 0.33 kG CO2/kWh, but has dropped to about 0.23 kG CO2/kWh.

The headline in newspapers could be something like the following:

The Green Isle Goes Brown – CO2 Emissions Jump!

But, is that really happening? The start of the problem started in 2006/7, and got bad in 2007/2008. For such a massive change, something very bad must have happened. After all, how could so much CO2 be pushed into the Tasmanian skies without some significant changes taking place.

From what I can work out, significant changes did take place, but many of the changes come under the heading ‘creative accounting’. You see, these figures give an indication as to the CO2 emissions from the electricity used in Tasmania. You might need to read that statement again – the numbers reflect the CO2 emissions from generating the electricity used in Tasmania. They do not always reflect the CO2 emissions from the electricity generated in Tasmania.

Traditionally, there has not been a difference. Tasmania after all is an Island which is somewhat separated from the Australian mainland. However, at the end of June, 2006, a power link was placed into service between Tasmania and Victoria. This link, known as Basslink, means that Tasmania is able to sell electricity to the mainland, and is able to buy electricity from the mainland too.

In rough numbers, Victoria with their brown coal produces about 1.33 CO2/kWh, whereas Tasmania was about 0.07 CO2/kWh. If the Victorian power industry wanted to cleanse itself, or ‘Greenwash’ their figures to meet environmental goals, they could buy electricity from Tasmania. Now, since Tasmania was meeting their goals, they might have excess clean electricity, and might purchase electricity from Victoria rather than producing their own due to cost.

Extending this one stage further, it is possible to do these both at the same time, resulting in virtual CO2 going from Victoria to Tasmania, in return for extra income.

Since the transmission link works on a NET basis, no actual electricity need move through the link – the fact that it can is all that matters.

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