Understanding the NGER data

Greenhouse gas emissions

A corporation emits a greenhouse gas when it releases such a gas into the atmosphere as a result of its activities. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide; methane; nitrous oxide; sulphur hexafluoride; specified kinds of hydro fluorocarbons; and specified kinds of perflurorocarbons. Greenhouse gas emissions are measured as kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. This means that the amount of a greenhouse gas that a corporation emits is converted into an amount of carbon dioxide that has an equivalent global warming potential. For example, one tonne of methane released into the atmosphere will cause the same amount global warming as 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide. So, the one tonne of methane is expressed as 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalence, or 21 t CO2-e.

Scope 1 emissions are the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a direct result of an activity, or series of activities (including ancillary activities) that constitute the facility.

Examples of these would be:

  • manufacturing processes, such as gas emitted while making cement
  • transportation of materials, products, waste and people, such as a transport company burning diesel oil in its trucks
  • fugitive emissions, such as methane emissions from coal mines.

Scope 2 emissions are the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a direct result of one or more activities that generate electricity, heating, cooling or steam that is consumed by the facility but do not form part of the facility. It is important to recognise that scope 2 emissions from one facility are part of the scope 1 emissions from another facility. For example, a power station burns coal to power its generators and in turn create electricity. Burning the coal causes greenhouse emissions to be emitted. These gases are attributed to the power station as scope 1 emissions. If the electricity is then transmitted to a car factory and used there to power its machinery and lighting the gases emitted as a result of generating the electricity are then attributed to the factory as scope 2 emissions.

Scope 3 emissions are a third category of greenhouse gas emissions that are not reported under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme. These include greenhouse gas emissions (other than scope 2 emissions) that are generated in the wider economy as a result of activities at a facility but are physically produced by another facility. An example of this is the employees of a facility flying on a commercial airline for business.

Energy consumption

Energy production and consumption information collected under NGER legislation provides important data on energy flows occurring throughout the economy. Energy is defined as a list of fuels and energy commodities in schedule 1 of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Regulations 2008.

Energy consumption, in relation to a facility, is the use or disposal of energy from the operation of the facility, including own use and losses in extraction, production and transmission. Own use includes each conversion of energy from one form into another—for example, energy that is extracted, captured or manufactured at the facility—that is used in the operation of the facility. Energy can be transformed into different energy/fuel commodities a number of times within a facility as several energy products are made and used. For example, coal may be consumed to produce coke, which in turn can be consumed to generate further energy products.

In addition, some forms of energy produced upstream at one facility may be a downstream input for use or conversion to other energy forms at either:

  • the same facility
  • another facility under the operational control of the same group member
  • another facility under the operational control of a group member from the same corporate group, or
  • another facility belonging to another corporate group.

The NGER legislation requires the total amount of each commodity to be reported, including each transformation of energy from one fuel or commodity into another.

Energy consumption data reported by a corporation under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007 may be different to other net energy consumption statistics.