QUEENSLANDERS are the highest producers of greenhouse gas in the world, emitting 38.9 tonnes per person every year – nearly 11 tonnes more than the Australian average, a first-ever audit has found.

The audit, undertaken by the Wet Tropics Management Authority between Cooktown and Cardwell, offers stark warning about the threats of climate change.

Scientists have warned the Great Barrier Reef may be dead within 20 years and one of the world's most ancient rainforests in the Daintree faces extinction under just a few degrees of global warming.

The audit, based on 2005 figures showed far North Queensland – with its vast tracts of forest and little large scale industrial activity – fared relatively well per capita with 23.6 tonnes compared to Australia (28.2 tonnes) and the rest of the state (38.9 tonnes).

It found transport; stationary energy; land use change; and agriculture were responsible for 96 per cent of the region's emissions.

Carbon dioxide is responsible for 74 per cent of the region's emissions, followed by methane (17 per cent) and nitrous oxide (eight per cent).

Other areas such as Gladstone, with energy intensive industry such as aluminium and steel smelting and coal-burning electricity generators, were cited as a likely hot spot of greenhouse gas emissions.

Tourism and Industry Minister Desley Boyle said the large volumes of air traffic, personal motor vehicle use and electricity consumption in the region added to the high figures.

It was a wake-up call about the impact of climate change, she said.

[From The Courier-Mail online - Peter Michael December 25, 2007 11:00pm]