Fugitive emissions sector greenhouse gas emissions

Key Finding

Fugitive emissions trends

In 2022, fugitive emissions were 18.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e). This figure represents 14.6% of Queensland’s total emissions, and the long-term trend is increasing.

• In 1990, fugitive emissions were 4.4 MtCO₂e.
• In 2005, fugitive emissions were 13.0 MtCO₂e.

Drivers

The expansion of Queensland’s coal and gas extractive industry has resulted in this strong growth in fugitive emissions.

In 2015, fugitive emissions spiked as large natural gas processing plants came online. However, the year-on-year data shows a 5.9% and 10.9% decrease in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Driving these decreases was reduced production and associated emissions from underground mining, which tends to be gassier than surface mining.

In 2022, the sources of fugitive emissions were mainly:

• solid fuels (85.2%)
• oil, natural gas and other emissions from energy production (14.8%).

Methane

Fugitive emissions are mainly methane, a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 28 times higher than carbon dioxide over 100 years.

Methane is:

• in coal and oil deposits
• released during the mining or extraction process
• the primary component of raw natural gas, and often released during extraction and processing.

Queensland has the largest share of fugitive emissions in Australia, accounting for 37.8% of the country’s emissions from this sector.

Relevant Sustainable Development Goals’ targets

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