Climate and environmental groups have criticized comments by new resource minister Madeleine King in support of the new gas development, saying it is inconsistent with what climate science says is needed to limit global warming.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, King said new gas fields such as the Narrabri de Santos development in northern New South Wales would help prevent a future power crisis.
“Avoid a crisis, that’s what it does, because it means more gas closer to your systems,” King said of the Narrabri project.
The Santos project was approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission and the federal government in 2020. It would not produce gas until 2025.
It has faced strong opposition from community and environmental groups and traditional landowners who have raised concerns about its effects on the climate, water and forest of Pilliga.
Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, said the east coast energy crisis would not be resolved with more fossil fuel developments.
The International Energy Agency and the United Nations have said that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5ºC.
“Any discussion of gas as a transition fuel is ignoring climate science, ignoring methane ventilation and fugitive emissions, and ignoring the whole supply chain analysis and the reality that methane emissions are being shooting far above corporate data, “Buckley said.
“Methane is now a quarter of global CO2 equivalent emissions and we have a climate emergency.”
Buckley said new gas developments would take years to stay online and would not address rising prices.
“Domestic gas production on the east coast has tripled in the last decade, so it is totally unspoken that even more production will somehow reduce record gas prices,” he said. “The problem is excessive exports from the east coast of Australia.”
Andrew Stock is a retired energy executive and a retired founding director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
He is now an adviser to the Climate Council and said the work of both the IEA and the UN made it clear that “there was no room in the planet’s climate balance for new gas developments”.
Stock said the states with the lowest energy prices in the domestic market were those that had diversified sharply into renewables and storage, such as South Australia.
“What the government should do is work very hard to put in place a transition plan towards renewables and storage, and away from fossil fuels, because that makes Australia independent of what is happening in the rest of the world. world, “he said.
National energy ministers have agreed to create a transition plan to decarbonise the economy, speed up the work of the Energy Security Board on creating additional capacity for electricity supply and an investigation by regulators of the purchase and storage of gas to reduce the risks. of scarcity.
King told the Sydney Morning Herald that he wanted to decarbonise the economy, but he had to accept some of the realities of our current energy mix.
Sign up for an email with the latest Guardian Australia news every morning
Chris Gambian, executive director of the NSW Nature Conservation Council, said King’s support for Narrabri’s development would do nothing to address the immediate energy deficit and “ignores the obvious need to reserve domestic gas”.
“It also ignores the significant environmental damage that the local Narrabri community has been seriously concerned about for many years.”
The traditional owners of Gomeroi voted overwhelmingly against reaching an agreement with Santos for their Narrabri gas project. The matter is the subject of proceedings before the national court of the native title.
Gomeroi’s traditional owner, Karra Kinchella, said there had been resistance to the Santos project for more than a decade and “that won’t change just because Mrs King wants it.”
“What fascinates me most is that if we had started the transition to renewable energy ten years ago, Pilliga would not be at risk now,” he said.
King told Guardian Australia in a statement: “The government is committed to achieving zero net emissions by 2050 and gas will continue to be a major source of energy during the energy transition. Gas is able to ensure reliability and security of energy supply as coal generation ends. “
The minister said gas developments have “the potential to meet the increased demand for gas generation during the energy transition”, as well as increased investment in renewable energy and energy storage.
“If developments like Narrabri accumulate environmentally and commercially, and receive the necessary approvals, they should move forward,” King said. “This includes environmental approvals and native title processes.”