Remember the Paris Agreement? It’s a thing that the Australian Government (somewhat reluctantly) signed, alongside 170 other countries. Australia legally committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by the year 2030, in keeping with the international goal of keeping global warming within a two degree increase over the next century.

So how’s that all going? Poorly. Not only have we made zero headway in reducing our emissions, they’re actually at their highest point ever. That’s according to new estimates from specialist carbon consultancy firm NDEVR Environmental.

“Our direct emissions for the 2017 Financial Year were the highest they've been dating back to 2002, which is the limit of the Government's adjusted records,” a new report reads.

“Including the final quarter of 2017 Financial Year, direct emissions from the year are 552.7 MtCO2-e. This is almost 6 MtCO2-e more than the previous high, which was [during the] 2016 Financial Year.

“For the 2017 financial year, our total emissions (including LULUCF) were 9.1 MtCO2-e more than the previous financial year. This equates to the emissions of an additional 3.37 million cars over the same time.”

Hmm. Doesn’t sound all that good, but it shouldn’t be surprising either. While some states and territories have made headway in terms of renewable power sources by installing wind and solar farms, Federal Government policy has done little to address Australia’s emissions over the past two years.

Nor has the Government made many public statements on the matter: a telling aspect of the NDEVR report is that they had to come up with their own estimates (using the same methodology) because the government is six months behind in releasing the relevant data.

Typically, NDEVR points out, those wily politicians will release emissions statistics right before Christmas—when they’re unlikely to receive any media coverage. This has occurred over the past two years.