Australia will only reach its 2020 carbon dioxide emissions reduction target using carryover accounting measures, the federal environment department has admitted to a Senate committee.
But that's within international accounting norms for emissions pledges, departmental secretary Gordon de Brouwer insists.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries that exceeded their first phase targets can use surpluses to offset emissions in the second phase.
However, several countries including Germany, Sweden and Britain forfeited the carryover they technically could have counted towards their 2020 goals.
Australia is banking 128 million tonnes of surplus CO2.
It means that, in reality, Australia isn't on the path to meet its five per cent reduction target by 2020 without those carryovers.
"Emissions over that period will be slightly more than our carbon budget," department official Travis Bover told an estimates hearing in Canberra on Friday.
"But when you factor in the 128 million tonnes of carryover from the first commitment period we're tracking to stay within our carbon budget by 78 million tonnes."
Mr Bover argued carryovers were just one factor in reaching the five per cent target.
Former environment minister Greg Hunt has previously described as odd the idea that emissions reductions should be calculated without carryovers.
The government has set a 26 to 28 per cent reduction target for 2030 but is yet to release emissions projections to that date.
Greens senator Larissa Waters described the five per cent target as measly.
"The government's cynical attempt to cook the books by claiming success from earlier periods, when Australia's pollution is actually increasing, isn't fooling anyone," she told AAP on Friday.
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