The purpose of this report is to estimate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from a corporation using the emissions and energy threshold calculator – 2018 developed by the Clean Energy Regulator. Greenhouse gas emissions are one of the major factors contributing to climate change (Anderson, et al., 2016). These gases have huge negative impacts on human health, environment, economy (Garcia-Sanchez & Prado-Lorenzo, 2012) and social aspects of human life. They are causing extreme weather events, destabilizing natural ecosystems, declining air and water quality, causing diseases and declining economies (Luber & Prudent, 2009). These greenhouse gases include, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and fluorinated gases (hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and perfluorocarbons, among others (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2017), and they are produced from different uses of energy. The purpose of estimating these greenhouse gas emissions is to determine if the corporation has to register and report under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007.
Many governments are developing programs and initiatives that will help reduce the impacts of climate change. The Australian Government, through Clean Energy Regulator, formulated the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 as an initiative to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from corporations. The purpose of the Act is to hold corporations accountable for their activities that consume energy, produce energy and emit greenhouse gases. Climate change is a major threat to the whole world and therefore every country, corporation and individual should be responsible and accountable for their actions or activities. This is a global problem and can only be solved through corporation of every person from all parts of the world. The aim of the Act is to engage players in different industries so as to develop and implement initiatives that will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency and encourage use of low emission technologies. The Act made it mandatory for corporations in Australia to monitor their operations, keep relevant records, register and report about greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and energy production at the facilities they own or operate (Australian National Audit Office, 2012).
The corporation in this study has a total of 5 facilities. These facilities are located in different parts of Australia. The operations in each facility are different and therefore each facility has unique energy requirements. However, the requirement by the corporation to register and report under National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting Act 2007 will be determined by the total emissions, energy consumed and energy produced from the entire five facilities. This means that emissions, energy consumed and energy produced for each facility will be calculated separately after which they values obtained will be summed up. The greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumed and energy produced reporting is based on full year operational control.
It is important to note that the greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumed and energy produced considered in this study are those that are directly involved with the operations or activities being undertaken at the facilities. For example if it is a factory, the greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumed and energy produced to be considered will be those involved in the actual production activities at the factory and other related activities such as transportation of raw materials from different sources to the factory and also the delivery of finished goods to the regional depots or final consumers.
The summary of emissions, energy consumed and energy produced for each of the facilities and their totals are provided in Table 1 below:
Table 1: Full year emissions, energy consumed and energy produced
|
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions (t CO2-e) |
Total Energy Consumed (GJ) |
Total Energy Produced (GJ) |
|
|
Facility 1 |
4,982 |
73,644 |
207 |
|
Facility 2 |
1,928 |
35,798 |
113 |
|
Facility 3 |
2,109 |
36,773 |
5,963 |
|
Facility 4 |
938 |
21,341 |
28,914 |
|
Facility 5 |
138 |
3157 |
8 |
|
Total |
10,095 |
170,712 |
35,205 |
From the results in Table 1 above, facility 1 consumes the highest amount of energy and also has the highest emissions. Facility 4 produces the highest amount of energy and its emissions are less than those of facility 1, 2 and 3. On the other hand, facility 5 consumes the least amount of energy, produces the least amount of energy and has the lowest emissions. But from this data, it is not possible to conclude the reasons contributing to the varied amount of emissions, energy consumed and energy produced. For instance, it cannot be concluded that since facility 5 has the lowest emissions, consumes the lowest energy and produces the lowest energy, it is the most efficient and environmentally friendly facility out of the five. This is because the low emissions and energy consumed and produced may be due to the nature of activities undertaken at the facility. In fact, it is not strange to find out that facility 5 may be the most inefficient and environmentally unfriendly than the other four facilities. Nevertheless, that is not the focus of this report.
According to the National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting Act 2007, the following are the thresholds that determine if a corporation is required to register and report or not. The corporation is required to register and report if its facilities exceed any of these thresholds:
This being 2018, the third threshold applies in this case It therefore means that the corporation has the obligation to register and report under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 if all its facilities consume or produce over 200 TJ of energy or emits 50 kt of greenhouse gases.
From the results given in Table 1 above, the corporation’s total annual emissions are 10,095 tCO2-e, which is below the threshold of 50,000 tCO2-e; the corporation’s total annual energy consumed is 170,712 GJ, which is below the threshold of 200,000 GJ; and the corporation’s total annual energy produced is 35,205 GJ, which is below the threshold of 200,000 GJ. This means that none of the thresholds is met and therefore the corporation is not obligated to register and report under the National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting Act 2007.
But having said that, it does not mean that the corporation should not be concerned about the emissions, energy consumed and energy produced by its facilities. This information should drive more research about the operations of these facilities so as to identify less-efficient areas and develop strategies of improving them. There is no facility that can be 100% efficient but constant evaluation of their operations and improvement makes them better at all times.
One of the immediate actions that the corporation should take is to perform a comprehensive analysis on energy consumption by its five facilities. The total energy consumed by the facilities is 170,712 GJ, which is short of the 200,000 GJ threshold by 29,288 GJ only. The corporation should identify areas where most energy is consumed and develop strategies of reducing energy consumption. These strategies may include: use of alternative energy sources such as renewable energy or other forms of environmentally friendly energy, improving energy efficiency of its systems, using computerized systems to monitor and control energy consumption.
Violating the National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting Act 2007 results in civil penalties. If a corporation meets any of the greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumed and energy produced thresholds but fails to register report and report to the Clean Energy Regulator, it will be fined a maximum of $220,000 and an additional $11,000 each day that it continues to violate the Act (Cornwall Stodart, 2015). Corporations are also required to keep records of their greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumed and energy produced by their facilities. Failure to keep records attracts a penalty of $110,000.There is definitely no corporation that would wish to pay these penalties hence the best way is to adhere to the rules stipulated in the Act.
The levels of greenhouse gas emissions have been rising over the past years, posing a great threat to the current and future generations (Kijewska & Bluszcz, 2016). When these gases are emitted, they get trapped into the atmosphere thus causing the high temperatures being experienced all over the world (Department of the Environment and Energy, (n.d.)). For example, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have increased by over 40% from the start of Industrial Revolution, rising from approximately 280 ppm (parts per million) in 1800s to about 400 ppm today (Lallanila, 2018). These are alarming statistics that should make every person concerned about greenhouse gas emissions. Another worrying fact is that the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions are contributed by human activities (MacCarthy, et al., 2018). The increasing human population, energy-inefficient industrial processes, environmentally unfriendly farming practices and changing lifestyles are some of the major factors contributing to climate change. Some of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions include: rising sea level, less snow and ice, more flowing and drought, and increased extreme weather events, among others (British Geological Survey, 2017). The topic of global warming and other climate change events is no longer new. It requires the efforts of every person on earth to reverse or mitigate global warming. Governments should also enact policies that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse and energy monitoring system by the Clean Energy Regulator is just one of the initiatives by the Australian government to promote the fight against global warming and climate change.
Conclusion
Climate change is a global problem that must be fought by everybody. Australian government, through the statutory agency Clean Energy Regulator, formulated the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 to compel corporations to monitor, keep records and control greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and energy production of the activities undertaken at their facilities. All this is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The corporation investigated in this report has five facilities. The emissions and energy threshold calculator – 2018 has been used to calculate emissions, energy consumed and energy produced by the facilities. Results obtained showed that the total annual emissions from the five facilities is 10,095 tCO2-e, total annual energy consumed is 170,712 GJ and total annual energy produced is 35,205 GJ, which are below the thresholds of 50 tCO2-e, 200 GJ and 200 GJ respectively. This means that none of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 thresholds is met hence the corporation does not have to register or report to the Clean Energy Regulator. Nevertheless, there is need for the corporation to evaluate the energy consumption, energy production and emissions of its facilities so as to identify the most appropriate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency and integrate low emissions technologies.
References
Anderson, T., Hawkins, E. & Jones, P., 2016. CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today’s Earth System Models. Endeavour, 40(3), pp. 178-187.
Australian National Audit Office, 2012. Administration of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme, Canberra: Australian National Audit Office.
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Kijewska, A. & Bluszcz, A., 2016. Research of varying levels of greenhouse gas emissions in European countries using the k-means method. Atmospheric Population Research, 7(5), pp. 935-944.
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