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Department of Climate Change
Department of Climate Change, 2008
PLEASE NOTE: Updated 29 February 2008 as follows:
Table 1 updated with emission factors for additional fuels.
Amended emissions formula for Municipal wastewater treatment.
Minor corrections to example calculations.
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The National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors has been prepared by the Department of Climate Change and replaces the AGO Factors & Methods Workbook.
Unless otherwise stated, the emission factors listed in this document have been taken from the Technical Guidelines for the Estimation of Greenhouse Emissions and Energy at Facility level. The Technical Guidelines are available on the Department of Climate Change website and have been designed to support reporting under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007, once the first reporting period under the Act commences on 1 July 2008. The emission factors reported here have a general application to a broader range of greenhouse emissions inventories, and are not intended to be restricted in their use to reporting under the Act.
The default emission factors listed in these Guidelines have been estimated by the Department of Climate Change using the Australian Greenhouse Emissions Information System (AGEIS) and are determined simultaneously with the production of Australia's National Greenhouse Accounts. This ensures that consistency is maintained between Reporters' inventories at company or facility level and the emission estimates presented in the National Greenhouse Accounts. The emission factors are referred to in this document as National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) default emission factors.
More information on the estimation methods employed in the National Greenhouse Accounts is available in the Australian Methodology for the Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks series. The methods used at the national level, and reflected in the factors reported here, are consistent with international guidelines and are subject to international expert review each year.
Reporters under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System may utilise NGA default emission factors listed in the Technical Guidelines in the preparation of emission inventories or they may choose to utilise information on emission factors available at facility level, under certain conditions. Guidance is provided to assist Reporters that choose to use their own information on emission factors. See the Technical Guidelines for more details.
The emission factors reported in this publication replace those listed in the AGO Factors and Methods Workbook, released in December 2006. Updated emission factors reflect changes in composition of the fuel mix used to produce electricity; revisions to fuel consumption data previously published by official sources and changes in emissions estimates reported in the national inventory. In addition, the ongoing implementation of new international guidelines for emissions estimation methodologies - the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for the Preparation of National Inventories - have also generated some minor revisions to some emission factors.
Past published emission factors reflected the best information available at the time of their release and may remain valid for particular programmes. Updates to emission factors for past years presented in this document do not necessarily imply any need to revise estimates of emissions for previous years - approaches to updating past emission estimates will depend on the particular details of individual greenhouse reporting programs.
