The Australian Government has achieved a key milestone under its ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ly Determined Contribution (NDC) with the cancellation of all Commonwealth-held Kyoto Protocol units.
Australia has now cancelled more than 700 million of Commonwealth-held Kyoto units. Each unit represents 1 tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent of emissions reduction that occurred before 2021. The cancelled units equate to one and a half year’s worth of Australia’s national emissions.
As part of Australia’s NDC under the , Australia voluntarily committed to not use units surplus to our 2020 or emission target requirements, to meet our Paris Agreement targets.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change.
The Agreement strengthens global response to the threat of climate change by:
- holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels
- pursuing efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C.
Under the Agreement, Australia must submit emissions reduction commitments. These are known as ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ly Determined Contributions (NDCs).
