High-profile experts cast doubt over the bulk of the country’s touted reductions in greenhouse pollution
Australia is likely to be releasing more emissions from deforestation than reported to the United Nations, new analysis indicates, stoking calls for an independent review of the sector that has delivered the bulk of the country’s claimed reductions in greenhouse gas pollution in recent decades.
An assessment of satellite imagery of more than 50 properties in Queensland by Martin Taylor, an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, has identified significant discrepancies between what is treated as cleared land by Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) and the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (Slats) used by the state government.