The federal government has answered calls to release greenhouse gas pollution data it had been sitting on since last year.

Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg released the quarterly updates on Friday, less than 24 hours after a Fairfax Media exclusive revealed documents confirming the department had failed to release data for the two quarters leading up to the end of 2016.

On Friday, Mr Frydenberg announced Australia's greenhouse gas emissions had increased by 0.4 per cent in the September quarter and by 0.3 per cent in the December quarter of last year.

"Interestingly, electricity sector emissions fell by 1.3 per cent over the December quarter and fell 0.6 per cent in the September quarter as a result of the use of more hydro and less brown coal," Mr Frydenberg said.