Question Number: 32
PDR Number: AI-32
Date Submitted: 22/02/2022
Department or Body: Industry, Science, Engergy and Resources

Australia’s net zero target is an economy-wide target, covering all sectors and gasses included in Australia’s national inventory. Australia’s Nationally Determined Contribution Communication 2021 under the Paris Agreement is publicly available online and provides details on the scope of the target.

Under the rules adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Australia’s inventory must reflect anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals by sinks. This includes all emissions and sinks from managed land. In Australia, all of Australia’s landscape is considered to be managed land for the purposes of the inventory.

Under these international rules and guidelines, Australia also elects to report on coastal blue carbon, which include sinks and emissions from coastal wetlands including mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass beds.

Emissions and sinks from the landscape and coastal wetlands, including mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass beds are included in the accounting for the net zero target. Other anthropogenic emissions or sinks from territorial oceans are not currently eligible to be reported in the national inventory under the international rules and guidelines and are thus not included in our accounting for the net zero target.