CANBERRA: Australia is powering a global surge in an especially polluting type of steel production, and exporting a massive amount of greenhouse gases — 88% as much as it produces domestically. According to a new report from Greenpeace Australia Pacific, the government’s ambitious coal export plans threaten to overwhelm any emissions gains made as part of the Paris climate agreement.
The Turnbull administration is looking to further ramp up Australia’s metallurgical coal exports by nearly 50% over the next 15 years, which would erase the benefit of Australia achieving its Paris emissions target by more than 3 times over. Basically, as Australia looks to cut emissions by some 92mt a year to 441mt by 2030, it also intends to export emissions of nearly 650mt.
