Australian emissions report card

G magazine
Sunday 1/6/2008 Page: 6

Emissions of toxic substances from businesses in Australia have not increased substantially in the last year, according to the latest government report. Pollutants from fossil fuel industries, meanwhile, show a massive 25 per cent increase over the same period. The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) 2007 lists emissions information in Australia, and is in its ninth year of publication. This year's NPI covers 93 toxic substances reported by nearly 4,000 Australian industrial facilities.

According to Alex Taylor, assistant director at the NPI, 47 of the substances reported had a decrease in emissions for this year, while the remaining 46 showed an increase; in other words, it was roughly stable. The total emissions for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was 3.2 billion kilograms for the year, which is unchanged from the previous year and constitutes just over a three per cent increase from 1998 levels. Chemicals produced through processing biological material, including oil and coal, made up three quarters of VOC pollutants.

Pollutant by-products from manufacturing with petroleum or coal increased from 12 to 15 million kg between 2006 and 2007, up 25 per cent. Heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead, saw small changes for the year; cadmium increased by nearly two per cent, and lead decreased by 7.4 per cent. The majority of emissions from cadmium and lead were from building roads (both paved and unpaved).

While CO2, and other greenhouse gases may be considered pollutants, they are not tracked by the NPI. According to Taylor, the NPI follows localised pollutants, whereas greenhouse gases are pollutants on a global scale. In addition, under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007, medium-sized companies and larger companies must report all greenhouse gas emissions, making the inclusion of these emissions in the NPI redundant