About this Project

This project provides data concerning the GHG emissions produced from Australia’s exported fossil fuels. We have focused on the emissions produced by exports to highlight the huge contribution that Australia and other countries make to climate change via their production and export of fossil fuels.

Why is documenting emissions from exports so important? Apart from air and sea travel, most GHG emissions are produced within the territories of nation states. It is the emissions of states and attempts to reduce them, that are the focus of the annual global Conference of Parties (COP) negotiations under the auspices of the UN.

Yet important as the focus on domestic emissions is, it does not capture the contribution made by those states like Australia that export fossil fuels in very large quantities. The contribution made by fossil fuel exporting states merits distinct attention.

There are several reasons for this.

The first is that fossil fuel exporting states plausibly bear some responsibility for the climate harms to which their exports contribute. This is because the supply of fossil fuels is a key part of the causal chain that leads to the production of GHG emissions. Countries accepting greater responsibility for what they export might entail: including extra emissions in the exporting country’s carbon budget, curtailing exports, increasing carbon reduction efforts, or being liable to compensate for any harms caused.

The second reason is the sheer scale of the emissions produced from exports. In Australia’s case exported emissions are roughly double the emissions produced domestically.

Third, there is also a huge economic cost associated with fossil exports. While there are clearly some economic benefits, the export industry in Australia and elsewhere is heavily subsidised, causes environmental damage and has large clean up costs.

All of these concerns ought to lead to an increased focus on the impact of exported emissions. The data and other resources provided on this site will, we hope, go some way towards correcting this neglect.