Australia’s net energy use has increased for the first time since before the pandemic.
New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show 2022-23 represented the first increase in net energy use in country since 2018-19.
ABS Head of Environment Statistics Luisa Ryan said net energy use increased by two percent across those 12 months.
“Both businesses and households saw higher end use, largely driven by a post-COVID-19 recovery in air travel and household use of fuel for transportation,” Ms Ryan said.
She said increased energy use in Mining (+4 percent) and Transport, postal and warehousing (+19 percent) were offset by another annual reduction in Manufacturing (-4 percent).
“Exports continued to dominate the national energy account, with 75 percent of total Australian energy supply being exported.
“Black coal remained the largest energy export commodity, followed by LNG and Uranium”, Ms Ryan said.
She said renewable energy extraction of hydro, solar and wind continued to grow, with a 12 percent rise in 2022-23.
Explore all the data in the Energy Account, Australia release.
