Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in 2018, according to a government report to the United Nations. The submission shows again that Australia faces a huge task in meeting its obligations under the Paris agreement despite the government’s insistence it has laid out “to the last tonne” how it will do this. The national inventory report to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says preliminary estimates indicate Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 were 537 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. This is an increase from 534.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2017. Australia to achieve 50% renewables by 2030 without government intervention, analysis finds Read more Emissions rose in individual sectors including transport, fugitive emissions (leaks from other activities such as methane from a coalmine) and stationary energy (fuels burnt in equipment or plants not involved in electricity generation) and there were decreases in the electricity sector. The report also presents the final emissions figures for 2017, which it says were an increase of 4.3m tonnes on 2016, or 0.8%. Australia’s emissions have increased every year for the past four years. It comes as the government is due to release its final emissions figures for 2018, which are published quarterly through the environment department. The government’s energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, told media this week the government’s climate targets were “ambitious”, despite the fact that its 26%-28% emissions reduction target is not considered to be aligned with the Paris goal of limiting global heating to no more than 2 degrees. On Tuesday, Taylor said Labor, which took a 45% target to the election, should back away from this policy and “agree to the 26% target”. Comment on the UNFCCC report has been sought from Taylor.