Greens leader Adam Bandt has accused the Northern Territory government of hiding a major emissions forecast report, to cover up a "very sorry tale" of further increases.
The last report from the NT government calculating expected emissions into the future was released in 2020.
The report forecast rising sea levels, more frequent and harsher fires, and droughts by the end of the century if the territory continued down a high-emissions path.
Under this scenario, the report also forecast that by the middle of the century, the number of days each year over 35 degrees Celsius would at least double in many places.
A second emissions forecast report was due to be released the following year in 2021. It was then delayed to 2022.
A spokesperson from the NT Environment Department confirmed a completed report was received and is currently being considered by the NT government, but could not provide any details on when the report would be made public.
The Northern Territory and Western Australia are the only two jurisdictions in the country where carbon emissions are on the rise.
Earlier this year the NT government gave the green light for fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, and its recently handed down budget forecasted a surplus that hinges on Santos' $4.7 billion Barossa gas field off the coast of the Tiwi Islands going ahead.
Mr Bandt said the public had the right to know how much pollution was being put in the atmosphere.
"Labor is hiding these reports because they know they will tell a very sorry tale that gas is pushing up Australia's climate pollution [and] pushing a safer climate out of reach," he said.
"Decisions now to open new gas projects will put a safer climate out of reach for our kids and our grandkids."
NT Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics Eva Lawler said the fast-changing energy and climate space was a reason for the delay.
"Things are changing very quickly in that space around emissions," the minister said.
"We're talking about using carbon capture and storage in the Northern Territory and we're talking about offsets and we have the greenhouse gas emissions offset policy."
Professor David Karoly, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Melbourne, said the delay was inconsistent with other states and territories, which typically prepared emissions projections on a "very regular" basis.
He said in the few years since the last report, scientists had observed a significant growth in emissions in the Northern Territory — by 13 per cent over the past 15 years.
That observation is backed by data in the federal government's 2021 Greenhouse Gas Inventory showing the territory's emissions have grown from 12.4719 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005 to 14.112 million tonnes in 2021.
"I certainly expect that greenhouse gas emissions in the Northern Territory will increase significantly over the next 10 years if further fracking projects are continued," Professor Karoly said.
Kirsty Howey, the director of the Environment Centre NT, said hopes of opening new gas fields like the Beetaloo Basin and the Barossa project being factored into a budget surplus forecast jarred with the government's commitments to net zero targets by 2050.
"We need binding targets to reduce our emissions by certain dates but what we are seeing by the government are proposals to exponentially increase emissions and hurdle us towards climate collapse," Ms Howey said.
The Northern Territory government is hoping to mitigate carbon emissions at its proposed Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct at Darwin Harbour through carbon capture and storage technologies.
But Professor Karoly — who is a councillor at Climate Council Australia and who was among the 100 scientists to call on the government to abandon its fracking plans in the Beetaloo Basin — said research showed there was "no way to stop the leakage of emissions".
