Fugitive emissions
Fugitive emissions are the gases that leak or are vented during the extraction, production, processing, storage,
transmission and distribution of fossil fuels such as coal, crude oil and natural gas. Emissions from
decommissioned underground coal mines are also included in this sector. Fugitive emissions do not include
emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
Fugitives accounted for 48 Mt CO2-e (8 per cent) of Australia’s emissions in 2012, an increase of 16 per cent on
2000 levels. Almost three-quarters of these emissions were from the coal industry.
Future emissions depend on a range of factors including market conditions and policy. Strong global demand for
Australia’s energy resources is projected to drive increased domestic production of fossil fuels. With no new
policy incentives, production growth is projected to lead to substantial emissions growth—to 79 Mt CO2-e in 2020
and 100 Mt in 2030. There are substantial cost-effective opportunities to reduce fugitive emissions, however.
With a high price incentive, emissions could be constrained to 59 Mt CO2-e in 2020 then fall to 50 Mt in 2030.
Australia’s fugitive emissions, 1990 to 2030
Note: The Targets and Progress Review examined four scenarios: no carbon price, and low, medium and high price: see Box 10.1 for details.
Source: Climate Change Authority Targets and Progress Review Figure D.29.
Fugitive emissions reduction opportunities include:
 improving management of methane emissions from coal mines
 reducing coal production from underground mines, which are typically more emissions-intensive than surface
mines, and
 improving equipment and operation practices for natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines.
Challenges to reducing emissions include:
 strong projected global demand for Australia’s energy resources
 limits on the applicability, viability and uptake of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, and
 the cost of emissions reduction technologies (for example, technologies to reduce emissions from coal mines
do not offer net savings to operators, so their broad adoption will depend on policy incentives).
See Chapter 11 and Appendix D6 of the Targets and Progress Review Final Report for more information