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Australia’s population grew rapidly and carbon emissions increased after falling for four years.
Australia’s population grew by 3.5% or more than 650,000 people to reach 27 million people by the end of 2023, a 41% increase since 2000. Population growth was the most rapid in decades, mainly due to immigration. Building approvals provide a ready, if imperfect, measure of land and resource use for construction. Approvals in 2023 declined for a second year by 15% from the previous year. Approvals fell to the lowest level since 2012 and were 11% below the 2000–2022 average.
Greenhouse gas emissions (not including land use change) increased for the first time since 2018, by 0.7% from the previous year. They were still 1.7% below the 2000–2022 average. Compared to the previous year, emissions continue to decrease in electricity generation (-3.5%), fugitives (-1.7%) and industrial processes (-0.6%) and remained nearly unchanged for waste and stationary energy (+0.1%), but increased for transport (+7.8%) and agriculture (+3.8%). The increase in transport emissions alone more than offsets the reductions achieved in other sectors.
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