2025 Annual Progress Report - FAQs

The Report gives independent advice to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy to inform the Annual Climate Change Statement to Parliament. It assesses Australia’s progress toward emissions reduction targets and recommends actions to accelerate transition to a prosperous, resilient, net zero economy.

• Reduce emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030
• Reduce emissions by 62–70% below 2005 levels by 2035
• Reach net zero emissions by 2050 (legislated goal).

Read more about the 2035 emissions reduction target in the Authority’s 2035 Targets Report.
 

Emissions are falling, but not fast enough yet. The rate of emissions reductions must double to meet the 2030 target and triple to meet the 2035 target.

Read more in Part 2: Australia’s decarbonisation progress.

Electricity and energy, resources, and industry and waste sectors made up 92% of the 10 Mt CO₂-e reduction.

Read more in Part 2: Australia’s decarbonisation progress.

Australia’s renewable share reached about 40% in 2025, growing roughly 3 percentage points a year since 2020. The pace of renewable deployment will need to grow by 8 percentage points a year to hit the 82% target by 2030. While the 82% target remains achievable, the current rate of environmental approvals is more consistent with reaching around 76% renewables by 2030 and could be lower if rollout challenges persist.  

Rapid deployment of renewable generation and supporting infrastructure, including transmission and system security services, is essential to demand and replace ageing coal-fired generators. Progress on the closure of coal-fired generators is mixed, partly due to the necessary substitutes not yet being in place. Rooftop solar remains a star performer, and the Cheaper Home Batteries Program is boosting its impact.

Read more in Part 5: Policy focus – Capacity Investment Scheme.
 

To speed up the rollout of renewable energy projects, several steps can make a big difference:

• Update the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to consider emissions reduction benefits in approvals
• Set up a specialist strike team to fast-track priority projects
• Use regional planning, bilateral agreements, and digital tools to streamline approvals

Read more in Part 4: Accelerating environmental approvals to support the net zero transition. 

Local opposition and inconsistent benefit-sharing arrangements are delaying renewable projects. The 2025 Annual Progress Report recommends a national program for engagement and sharing benefits like job opportunities,  housing improvements, services and infrastructure to share the benefits, support community literacy and acceptance of the transition.

Read more in Part 3: Economic and structural transformation.

The Capacity Investment Scheme underwrites renewable energy projects to provide investor certainty. It is central to achieving 82% renewable energy by 2030 and should continue beyond 2027 until it’s no longer needed.

Read more in Part 5: Policy focus – Capacity Investment Scheme.

Australians are already feeling the impacts of climate change such as floods, bushfires and heatwaves, and these risks will continue to grow. Climate adaptation is critical for maintaining productivity, reducing long-term costs, and avoiding harm. However, preparing for these challenges is costly, and governments cannot carry the burden alone. A National Adaptation Finance Strategy would help unlock private investment to share the load. 

Read more in Part 3: Economic and structural transformation.

National leadership is essential to reform land-use planning, strengthen infrastructure, and support planned relocations. These steps will help ensure Australians are not locked into living and working in areas that are increasingly vulnerable to climate risks.

Read more in Part 3: Economic and structural transformation.

The Safeguard Mechanism(Opens in a new tab/window) is the Government’s key policy to cut emissions from Australia’s largest industrial facilities and creates demand for carbon offsets. The Scheme sets limits (called baselines) on how much facilities can emit and requires them to reduce emissions over time or buy carbon units. The Scheme is designed to make a significant contribution to meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets. 

Read more in Part 6: Policy focus – Safeguard Mechanism.

Safeguard emissions are declining consistently with legislated Safeguard outcomes, but it will need to keep evolving to meet Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction targets.

Preliminary data for 2024-25 show:

• Safeguard emissions are dropping, down 2.4% from last year
• Baselines (emissions limits) are falling as the 4.9% decline rate applies each year
• Facilities increasingly rely on carbon credits while they transition to low-emissions technologies
• Safeguard Mechanism Credit (SMC) generation is falling as tighter baselines make it harder for companies to earn credits without adopting low-emissions technologies.

Read more in Part 6: Policy focus – Safeguard Mechanism.

The Authority’s analysis of Safeguard emissions relies on preliminary data from the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) to meet legislated deadlines for the Annual Progress Report. The data have not yet undergone the CER’s full quality control processes and do not include flexible compliance measures that facilities may adopt under the Safeguard Mechanism. As a result, the final 2025 data due to be published by the CER in April 2026 may differ from the preliminary figures.