Australia's Yearly Greenhouse Gas Emissions in CO₂ Equivalent
Key Insights
2024 Emissions Profile
In 2024, CO2 was the largest source at around 407 megatonnes CO2, or roughly 65% of Australia's national total, declining by about 5.1 megatonnes CO2 per year over the ten years to 2024. Methane was around 134 megatonnes CO2e (21%), declining by 2.9 annually; N2O was roughly 68 megatonnes CO2e (11%), declining by 0.7 annually; and F-gases were about 15 megatonnes CO2e (2%), rising by 0.4 annually. CO2 dominated emissions, followed by methane.
Historic Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions
CO2 emissions began at roughly 31 megatonnes CO2 in 1851, rose to around 156 in 1927, then fell back to about 93 by 1943. They subsequently climbed unevenly, peaking at roughly 713 megatonnes CO2 in 2010. Emissions then declined sharply, ending 2024 at around 407 megatonnes CO2.
Historic Methane (CH4) Emissions
Methane emissions rose from roughly 4 megatonnes CO2e in 1851 to around 68 by 1943 and about 167 by the late 1970s. They varied thereafter, peaking at roughly 197 megatonnes CO2e in 2001 before declining to around 134 in 2024. Methane's warming contribution since 1851 was around 22% larger than its emissions alone suggest, because methane's short atmospheric lifetime amplifies the warming impact when CH4 emissions are rising.
Historic Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Emissions
N2O emissions started at about 8 megatonnes CO2e in 1851 and rose gradually to around 23 by the late 1930s. They climbed more rapidly thereafter, reaching a peak of roughly 104 in 2001, despite a dip around the early 1980s. Emissions declined overall after 2001, ending 2024 at around 68 megatonnes CO2e.
Historic Fluorinated Gases (F-gases) Emissions
F-gas emissions were close to zero in 1851 and remained very small until the mid-20th century. They rose to around 6 megatonnes CO2e by 1989, fell to roughly 3 in the mid-1990s, then increased steadily. They reached their record high of around 15 megatonnes CO2e in 2024.
Background
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main drivers of human-induced warming. In the scientific literature, human-induced emissions are often referred to as anthropogenic emissions.
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
- Methane (CH4)
- Nitrous oxide (N2O)
- Fluorinated gases (F-gases)
Emissions from all different gases are expressed in CO2-equivalent units to make it possible to compare the relative emissions from these different gases. CO2-equivalents are calculated using the global warming potentials of the respective gases, in this case using a 100-year time horizon.
Wikipedia: Global Warming PotentialTotal Historic Share
Emissions from all different gases are expressed in CO2-equivalent units to make it possible to compare the relative emissions from these different gases. CO2-equivalents are calculated using the global warming potentials of the respective gases, in this case using a 100-year time horizon.
Crabon Dioxide (CO2)
CO2 includes emissions from fossil fuels and industry (FFI), and from land-use, land-use-change, and forestry (LULUCF).
Methane (CH4)
Methane emissions are caused by human activities such as rearing livestock, agricultural practices, and fugitive fossil fuel emissions.
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
Common sources of these emissions are fossil fuel emissions and the agricultural use of synthetic fertilizer and manure.
Fluorinated Gases (F-gases)
Fluorinated gases are a group of gases defined by UNFCCC: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). Fluorinated gases are also known as halogenated gases.
Wikipedia: Greenhouse Gas EmissionsIPCC: Annual Report 6, 5.2.1 5.2 Historical Trends, Variability and Budgets of CO2, CH4 and N2O
Units and Measures
CO2-equivalent emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.
Wikipedia: MegatonneWikipedia: Global warming potential
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National CO2 emissions data through 2024 is from the Global Carbon Project and covers fossil sources and land-use change. Emissions data through 2024 for CH4, N2O and F-gases comes from the PRIMAP-hist dataset, which combines several published sources into historical emissions time series.
The Key Insights paragraph was created using a large language model (LLM) in combination with our data, historic events, and a structured approach for best accuracy by separating the context generation from the interpretation and narrative.
Data Sources
Global Carbon Budget 2025 Global Carbon Budget
Update cycle: yearlyDelay: ~ 10 months after the end of the year. Current year values are estimated and published in November.Credits: Friedlingstein, P., O'Sullivan, M., Jones, M. W., Andrew, R. M., Bakker, D. C. E., Hauck, J., Landschützer, P., Le Quéré, C., Li, H., Luijkx, I. T., Peters, G. P., Peters, W., Pongratz, J., Schwingshackl, C., Sitch, S., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., Aas, K., Alin, S. R., Anthoni, P., Barbero, L., Bates, N. R., Bellouin, N., Benoit-Cattin, A., Berghoff, C. F., Bernardello, R., Bopp, L., Brasika, I. B. M., Chamberlain, M. A., Chandra, N., Chevallier, F., Chini, L. P., Collier, N. O., Colligan, T. H., Cronin, M., Djeutchouang, L., Dou, X., Enright, M. P., Enyo, K., Erb, M., Evans, W., Feely, R. A., Feng, L., Ford, D. J., Foster, A., Fransner, F., Gasser, T., Gehlen, M., Gkritzalis, T., Goncalves De Souza, J., Grassi, G., Gregor, L., Gruber, N., Guenet, B., Gürses, Ö., Harrington, K., Harris, I., Heinke, J., Hurtt, G. C., Iida, Y., Ilyina, T., Ito, A., Jacobson, A. R., Jain, A. K., Jarníková, T., Jersild, A., Jiang, F., Jones, S. D., Kato, E., Keeling, R. F., Klein Goldewijk, K., Knauer, J., Kong, Y., Korsbakken, J. I., Koven, C., Kunimitsu, T., Lan, X., Liu, J., Liu, Z., Liu, Z., Lo Monaco, C., Ma, L., Marland, G., McGuire, P. C., McKinley, G. A., Melton, J., Monacci, N., Monier, E., Morgan, E. J., Munro, D. R., Müller, J. D., Nakaoka, S.-I., Nayagam, L. R., Niwa, Y., Nutzel, T., Olsen, A., Omar, A. M., Pan, N., Pandey, S., Pierrot, D., Qin, Z., Regnier, P. A. G., Rehder, G., Resplandy, L., Roobaert, A., Rosan, T. M., Rödenbeck, C., Schwinger, J., Skjelvan, I., Smallman, T. L., Spada, V., Sreeush, M. G., Sun, Q., Sutton, A. J., Sweeney, C., Swingedouw, D., Séférian, R., Takao, S., Tatebe, H., Tian, H., Tian, X., Tilbrook, B., Tsujino, H., Tubiello, F., van Ooijen, E., van der Werf, G., van de Velde, S. J., Walker, A., Wanninkhof, R., Yang, X., Yuan, W., Yue, X., and Zeng, J.: Global Carbon Budget 2025, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-659, in review, 2025.
PRIMAP-hist The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2024)
Update cycle: Every few monthsDelay: Less than 1 yearCredits: Gütschow, J.; Busch, D.; Pflüger, M. (2025): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.7 (1750-2024). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17090760