Australia's True GHG Emission Totals May Be 20% Higher Than Thought - Reuters

SYDNEY - Australia's greenhouse emissions could be almost 20 percent higher than government figures, and well above an earlier agreed Kyoto Protocol limit, says a new report that studied land-clearing rates.

The Australia Institute report released on Wednesday said that recently published higher land-clearing rates in one of the country's biggest states, Queensland, cast doubt on a government claim that Australia was on track to meet the Kyoto target.

Australia signed the 1997 climate pact, which allowed the country's greenhouse gas emissions to rise eight percent above 1990 levels by 2008-12. While Canberra pulled out of the protocol four years later, it still cites the target as a measure of its green credentials even though it is no longer obliged to meet it.

Australia was one of the few nations allowed to increase emissions under Kyoto, which obliges about 40 nations to cut the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases by at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Australia was allowed the increase because of the expected benefits from reductions in land clearing used in calculating the overall emissions rate.

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