Less than 1.3% of total emissions from Australia's top 65 emitters had to be offset in FY19 to comply with statutory requirements, and the companies have varying records on voluntary action, a Footprint analysis shows.

Drawing on Clean Energy Regulator data and company public statements, the analysis assessed voluntary commitments made by entities with operational emissions greater than one million tonnes in FY19, and any regulatory constraints they faced that year.

Jointly, the 65 businesses had operational emissions (scope 1 and 2) totalling 352.7 million tonnes in FY19, accounting for about two-thirds of Australia's national emissions in that year.

They range from AGL, which emitted more than 40 million tonnes in FY19, down to the corporate group that owns rail freight business Pacific National, which emitted slightly more than one million tonnes.

The analysis showed 25 of the entities have no emissions reduction target and 17 have old-style targets unconnected to climate science and Paris Agreement requirements.

A total of 22 of the businesses have operational emissions targets that reflect climate science and Paris goals, and/or have made some form of net-zero commitment.

The analysis also shows federal and state governments between them imposed requirements to offset less than 1.3% of total emissions from the 65 businesses.

Variable approach to voluntary targets

Although only 22 of the 65 entities have operational emission targets that encompass either a net-zero goal, or involve a commitment under the international science-based targets initiative, between them they account for about 43% of total emissions from the 65 businesses.

The 22 businesses include AGL, Origin Energy, Anglo American, BHP, Qantas, two GFG Alliance businesses, Fortescue, Telstra and Yara.

In some cases, the commitment is via a company that might only have a partial stake in the entity (for example Rio Tinto – which has an equity-based commitment to net-zero – has a 51% stake in the joint venture that owns the Tomago smelter).

The 17 entities with old-style targets unconnected to Paris Agreement temperature goals and climate science include EnergyAustralia, Chevron, Alcoa, Santos, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, South32, Adelaide Brighton, Orica, Incitec Pivot, Boral and Newcrest.

However, Energy Australia and South32 both claim they will in future align with Paris Agreement goals.

Between them, these 17 businesses are responsible for about 26.7% of total emissions from the 65 entities.

The entities with no emissions targets include the owner of the Loy Yang B coal-fired power station, Delta Electricity, Inpex, Peabody, Whitehaven, APA Group, Viva Energy, and Coles Group (although the latter is committed to setting them).

The no-target entities also include state government-owned businesses such as Stanwell and CS Energy.

The analysis shows the 25 entities that have no emissions reduction target were responsible for almost 30% of total emissions from the 65 businesses.

Governments not using powers to limit net emissions

The federal government could potentially limit net emissions from any company by imposing offsetting requirements through the Safeguard Mechanism or the EPBC Act.

States and territories could potentially do the same through environmental approvals and licences.

However, so far, both levels of governments have opted not to exercise these legislative powers, the analysis shows.

No state or territory government has imposed a carbon offset condition for more than a decade (although a Fortescue power plant is likely to be subject to one shortly, possibly at its own behest).

There are currently only two state-imposed legacy offset conditions in place.

Both legacy conditions were imposed by the Western Australian government – one on Chevron's Gorgon project and the other on Woodside's Pluto development – and between them they require a total of less than 4.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas to be offset.

That equates to about 1.2% of total emissions from the 65 businesses.

At the federal level, the Safeguard Mechanism is explicitly designed to only constrain "rogue emitters", so the 65 businesses don't have to offset to meet their obligations, except in extremely rare circumstances.

Between them, five of the 65 businesses had to surrender 27,357 carbon credits in FY19 to stay below their baseline limits – representing less than .0008% of total emissions from the 65 entities.

(Rio Tinto's RTA Gove operation also surrendered some credits in FY19, but not because of its Safeguard limit.)

None of the 65 businesses are subject to an EPBC Act emissions offset condition.

30% not yet committed to detailed climate-risk disclosure

The analysis also shows that 25 of the businesses haven't committed to adopting the globally-recognised TCFD recommendations for climate-risk disclosure.

Businesses that haven't committed to TCFD include Alcoa, Delta, Peabody, Yancoal, Pratt Holdings, and CITIC Pacific (Corrected to remove Virgin Australia from the list of companies not committed to TCFD).

Several government-owned energy businesses, including Stanwell and CS Energy, haven't committed to TCFD.

These 25 businesses account for 31.2% of total emissions from the 65 businesses.

This article is open access and can be forwarded. Information on all 65 entities is available here. A subscription is required for access to the company data.