INDICATOR ASSESSMENT LEGEND
CONDITION
Environmental condition is healthy across the ACT, OR pressure likely to have negligible impact on environmental condition/human health.
Environmental condition is neither positive or negative and may be variable across the ACT, OR pressure likely to have limited impact on environmental condition/human health.
Environmental condition is under significant stress, OR pressure likely to have significant impact on environmental condition/ human health.
Data is insufficient to make an assessment of status and trends.
TREND & DATA QUALITY
Adequate high-quality evidence and high level of consensus.
Limited evidence or limited consensus.
Evidence and consensus too low to make an assessment.
Assessments of status, trends and data quality are not appropriate for the indicator.
Climate change
CC1: Climate Trends
Climate change is having a significant impact on the ACT, with clear evidence of a warming climate and increased occurrence of heat days. Rainfall is variable, but most recent years have been drier than average. Projections suggest a worsening climate with hotter temperatures and decreased rainfall.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
CC2: Impacts of climate change
Climate change is having a significant impact on the ACT, with clear evidence of a warming climate and increased occurrence of heat days. Rainfall is variable, but most recent years have been drier than average. Projections suggest a worsening climate with hotter temperatures and decreased rainfall.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
CC3: Greenhouse gas emissions
By 2020, emissions from electricity generation will fall to zero and the ACT will meet the legislated target for total emissions. Transport will contribute over 60% of ACT’s emissions after 2020 and will become the main focus for future reductions. However, transport emissions increased by 13% between 2012–13 and 2017–18 and will represent a significant challenge in the future. The phasing out of natural gas will also be important. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions were just over 8 tonnes in 2017–18, a decrease of around 24% from 2012–13.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
Human settlements
HS1: ACT’s ecological footprint
The ACT’s ecological footprint is over 9 times the size of the land area of the ACT, showing that current resource use is unsustainable. Although the ecological footprint is decreasing over time, particularly with the growth in renewable electricity, significant further cuts are required.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
HS2: Energy consumption and generation
Due to lack of data, this assessment is limited to electricity consumption and generation. ACT’s electricity consumption has remained stable, despite population growth, reflecting an ongoing decline in per capita usage.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
HS3: Solid waste generation and management
The lack of comprehensive and consistent waste data, and high annual variations in waste produced, makes it difficult to assess the status of waste in the ACT. There are no apparent trends indicating long-term changes in the total amount of waste generated, recovered or landfilled. However, the annual resource recovery rate is generally good at around 70% to 75% of the total waste generated, although this has not improved over the last 10 years.
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY