IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pclm00/0000091.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Australian states and territories: Determinants and policy implications

Author

Listed:
  • Nazish Nasim
  • Mehwish Nasim

Abstract

In order to implement effective climate mitigation policies, it is imperative to understand the determinants of GHG emissions. Our research indicates, no state and territory level analysis of Australia, for the determinants of GHG emissions has yet been carried out. This paper identifies the main determinants that affect GHG emissions growth in Australia and assesses their impact in the main Australian states and territories. It performs a rigorous statistical analysis and contrasts the significance of determinants using Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) Regression and the Linear Panel Data Model with Random effects for the period 1990–2018 for seven states and territories of Australia. We find a mix of GHG determinants in being significant for different states and territories while some show none of the determinants as being significant. Environmental policy analysis is later carried out and then compared with the empirical findings of this study. It is found that it is only in the latter half of the period under observation that some states and territories have instituted encouraging climate change policies while the rest lag behind. Heterogeneous climate mitigation policies, at state and territory level, will have to be implemented to decouple the significance of GHG emissions from its determinants. Also, the ready and comprehensive availability of data for unique variables, such as Savanna burning, will give clearer direction to heterogeneous and customized climate change policy solutions. Lastly, climate mitigation success in TAS (Tasmania), could serve as a leading case study to institute similar renewable energy measures in other states and territories.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazish Nasim & Mehwish Nasim, 2023. "Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Australian states and territories: Determinants and policy implications," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(2), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000091
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000091
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000091
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000091&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000091?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yann Robiou du Pont & Malte Meinshausen, 2018. "Warming assessment of the bottom-up Paris Agreement emissions pledges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Del Ponte, Alessandro & Masiliūnas, Aidas & Lim, Noah, 2025. "Decentralized voluntary agreements do not reduce emissions in a climate change experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    2. Karl W. Steininger & Keith Williges & Lukas H. Meyer & Florian Maczek & Keywan Riahi, 2022. "Sharing the effort of the European Green Deal among countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Tatjana Stankovic & Jon Hovi & Tora Skodvin, 2023. "The Paris Agreement’s inherent tension between ambition and compliance," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-6, December.
    4. Kyle S. Herman, 2024. "Doomed to fail? A call to reform global climate governance and greenhouse gas inventories," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 257-288, September.
    5. Saussay, Aurélien & Sato, Misato, 2024. "The impact of energy prices on industrial investment location: Evidence from global firm level data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    6. Auriane Meilland & Yann Kervinio & Aurélie Méjean, 2025. "International Climate Justice: What the People Think," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(1), pages 225-247, January.
    7. Yu Liu & Mingxi Du & Qi Cui & Jintai Lin & Yawen Liu & Qiuyu Liu & Dan Tong & Kuishuang Feng & Klaus Hubacek, 2022. "Contrasting suitability and ambition in regional carbon mitigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Olga Alcaraz & Bàrbara Sureda & Albert Turon & Cindy Ramírez & Marta Gebellí, 2021. "Equitable mitigation to achieve the 1.5 °C goal in the Mediterranean Basin," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 1-20, April.
    9. Auriane Meilland & Yann Kervinio & Aurélie Méjean, 2024. "International Climate Justice: What the People Think," Post-Print hal-04825108, HAL.
    10. Paul Terhemba Iorember & Solomon Gbaka & Gylych Jelilov & Nargiza Alymkulova & Ojonugwa Usman, 2022. "Impact of international trade, energy consumption and income on environmental degradation in Africa's OPEC member countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 175-187, June.
    11. João Camargo & Iñaki Barcena & Pedro M. Soares & Luísa Schmidt & Javier Andaluz, 2020. "Mind the climate policy gaps: climate change public policy and reality in Portugal, Spain and Morocco," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 151-169, July.
    12. Chen, Hao & Qi, Shaozhou & Zhang, Jihong, 2022. "Towards carbon neutrality with Chinese characteristics: From an integrated perspective of economic growth-equity-environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    13. Elie, Luc & Granier, Caroline & Rigot, Sandra, 2021. "The different types of renewable energy finance: A Bibliometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Mingyu Li & Setu Pelz & Robin Lamboll & Can Wang & Joeri Rogelj, 2025. "A principle-based framework to determine countries’ fair warming contributions to the Paris Agreement," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Biying Yu & Zihao Zhao & Yi-Ming Wei & Lan-Cui Liu & Qingyu Zhao & Shuo Xu & Jia-Ning Kang & Hua Liao, 2023. "Approaching national climate targets in China considering the challenge of regional inequality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Jose Rafael Núñez Collado & Han-Hsiang Wang & Tsung-Yi Tsai, 2019. "Urban Informality in the Paris Climate Agreement: Content Analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions of Highly Urbanized Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    17. Burke, Paul J. & Beck, Fiona J. & Aisbett, Emma & Baldwin, Kenneth G.H. & Stocks, Matthew & Pye, John & Venkataraman, Mahesh & Hunt, Janet & Bai, Xuemei, 2022. "Contributing to regional decarbonization: Australia's potential to supply zero-carbon commodities to the Asia-Pacific," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    18. Robert B. Zougmoré & Peter Läderach & Bruce M. Campbell, 2021. "Transforming Food Systems in Africa under Climate Change Pressure: Role of Climate-Smart Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    19. Ceecee Holz & Guy Cunliffe & Kennedy Mbeva & Pieter W. Pauw & Harald Winkler, 2023. "Tempering and enabling ambition: how equity is considered in domestic processes preparing NDCs," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 271-292, September.
    20. Gilang Hardadi & Alexander Buchholz & Stefan Pauliuk, 2021. "Implications of the distribution of German household environmental footprints across income groups for integrating environmental and social policy design," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(1), pages 95-113, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000091. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: climate (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/climate .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.