australia's greenhouse gas emissions have increased by at least 16.9 per cent during 1990-98, according to a government survey. This means that it has crossed its Kyoto Climate Change Protocol target, which stipulates an eight per cent increase by 2010.

A survey conducted by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory shows that net emissions for 1998 was 455.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, up by 5.2 per cent in 1997.

Grews Andrews, chief executive of the Australian greenhouse office, however, says, "The rise in 1998 cannot be directly compared with Australia's Kyoto target because of the use of different accounting system.'

According to her, economic growth is the main reason behind this increase. Electricity generation alone has accounted for around 37 per cent of the net greenhouse emissions.

"Now the government is using over one third of us $607 million Commonwealth funding for developing renewable energy sources,' said Grews. Besides this, the Australian renewable energy company, Pacific Hydro Limited, has started working on building the country's largest wind farm in Victoria state.