The coal-fired power and resources sectors dominate the top 10 list compiled by the ACF using data from the Clean Energy Regulator.
Pumping out almost 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gases each year from its Yallourn power station in Victoria and Mt Piper in New South Wales makes Energy Australia the biggest offender this year, however, AGL has purchased Macquarie Generation brown coal assets and would come out on top of any 2016 league table as AGL narrowly trailed Energy Australia and Macquarie Generation in 2013-14 with each generating the equivalent of about 20Mtpa.
AGL now owns the Bayswater and Liddell power stations in NSW and Loy Yang A in Victoria.
In at the number four spot was Rio Tinto, which was sledged for the output of its mineral exploration, production, smelting and processing activities across Australia.
The list was rounded out by GDF Suez for its Hazelwood and Loy Yang B power stations, Victoria; Stanwell Corporation for its Stanwell and Tarong power stations in Queensland; Alcoa; Origin Energy
for its Eraring power station in NSW; CS Energy for its Callide B, Callide C and Kogan Creek power stations in Qld and Woodside Petroleum for the power generation needed for its facilities and flaring.
Origin is one of the largest energy producers in Australia, and its portfolio is largely in cleaner gas-fired power, and its Eraring facility is its sole coal-fired plant.
ACF says it shows that the Commonwealth government “must start planning how it is going to retire the most polluting and out-dated coal plants and replace them with clean energy”
“The problem isn’t electricity, which is an essential service we all use, but the way most of our electricity is generated in Australia,” ACF president Geoff Cousins said.
“Some of Australia’s coal-fired power plants are highly polluting, inefficient old rust buckets that are well past their use-by dates.
“Hazelwood in Victoria, AGL’s Lidell in NSW and Callide A in Queensland are all more than 40 years old. In fact Hazelwood, owned by GDF Suez, was once rated the dirtiest power station in the developed world.
“Without the carbon price Australia no longer has a market mechanism to limit pollution, so it is up to the government to show how it will unshackle our economy from climate-changing coal and gas and allow renewable energy to reach its full potential.
“The most polluting, out-dated coal plants should be retired and replaced with clean energy – data from the Energy Supply Association shows wind and solar projects already identified could provide a quarter of Australia’s forecast electricity demand by 2023-24.”
He also urged the Abbott government not to water down the renewable energy target that would make it harder to investment in clean alternatives and drive up electricity prices.
A 2014 report by ACF, the Climate Institute and WWF-Australia, based on modelling by Jacobs, showed weakening the RET would benefit the owners of polluting coal power plants, at the expense of households.
“We hope this report prompts the federal government to start listening to the needs of all Australians, including future generations, not just to the big polluters.”
“Emissions from electricity generation have fallen in the past three years, but to reduce emissions further we must regain a bipartisan approach to energy and climate policy to restore the bankability of the sector and allow investment in new generation," the Energy Supply Association of Australia said in a statement.
"A survey of major banks and other investors late last year confirmed that there is an unwillingness to support new generation projects because of chronic oversupply, weak wholesale prices and policy instability."
The power sector accounts for almost 30% of Australia's total emissions.
Origin and Woodside declined to comment on the report, and AGL failed to return calls before press.
