User Guide

Snapshot

Snapshot shows local emissions profiles for all Australian municipalities, federal electorates and states. It is designed to help you identify sources of these emissions and the most effective strategies to reduce them. The free Snapshot profiles are updated annually.

Your Snapshot profile gives a breakdown of emissions by sector and sub-sector, including stationary energy (electricity and gas), transport, agriculture and land use, waste and industrial processes and product use. To see what each sector of emissions accounts for please see the FAQs for the relevant sector.

The data is represented as the total emissions in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by emissions source and sector. This is the universal unit of measurement to indicate the global warming potential of each greenhouse gas expressed in terms of one unit of carbon dioxide. It is used to evaluate the climate impact of releasing (or avoiding releasing) different greenhouse gasses with a common basis. Due to the approximate nature of the profile, the emission values are represented as rounded numbers.

Snapshot is generated from Tier 2 locally sourced data where available, and Tier 1 ‘top down’ or state level data in all other cases. Snapshot can be used alongside local data sets where more detail is needed. The full Methodology and data sources are available to download from the Resources page.

Alongside the data available online, you can download:

  • A PDF report which provides the profile chart and a high-level written summary.
  • Snapshot data in CSV format to use in your own analysis.
  • Sharable social media tiles of your Snapshot profile.

How to explore Snapshot

Snapshot currently provides profiles for the following calendar and financial years for all Australian municipalities, federal electorates and states:

  • 2018
  • 2018/19
  • 2019
  • 2019/20
  • 2020
  • 2020/21

For your selected region, for example, the municipality of Greater Shepparton, you can navigate between the following four views to explore the data for each year.

1. Profile Home. This shows you your profile for the latest year. Use the time-series in the top right to navigate between different profile years. Toggle between financial and calendar years using the CY/FY button.

2. Time-series. Toggle to the time-series view using the top right button. Click on individual bars to see the Profile Home view for that year. Toggle between financial and calendar years using the CY/FY button.

3. Sub-sector Breakdown. Hover over the profile donut and click on a wedge to view a more detailed breakdown of emissions by sub-sector.

4. Sub-sector Time-series. When you are in the Sub-sector Breakdown view you can toggle to the Sub-sector Time-series view using the top right button. Toggle between financial and calendar years using the CY/FY button.

Watch the Snapshot Virtual Tour to see how to navigate your profile.

How to use this data

Communities and council’s have a strong and proud history of leading climate action and many are working towards 100% renewable energy goals and ambitious zero emissions targets. With an understanding of the largest emissions sectors in your local area, you can target your activities to high impact areas.

Snapshot can help you identify key starting points for activities in your community:

  1. Building awareness: Share your Snapshot with your community and council on social media. Start a conversation and join a local climate action program.

  2. Advocating for next steps: Use Snapshot to advocate with your elected representatives, council and community. This could include setting a community-wide target or obtaining council support or endorsement. You can use this report to secure funding to employ a staff member to lead this work, or to develop local climate action plans.

  3. Targeted project: Select a project based on the sectors that are likely to generate the highest emissions in your community. For example, if agriculture is estimated to make up around 40% of emissions it might present a good target area to propose a distinct project, whereas if waste is estimated at only 3% of emissions you know the impacts of your project, no matter how successful, will be limited.

  4. Developing the tool: Join us in building this tool by providing feedback and suggestions on how the tool add further value and support climate change action.

The following infographic illustrates the proportion of councils in 2021 taking simple community wide actions to reduce greenhouse gasses in their area. Please read the Resources page for further ideas and information.

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