PM defends North West Shelf gas extension to 2070, as critics warn about net zero commitment

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

The prime minister has defended a decision to allow Australia's largest gas project to run until 2070 as necessary to ensuring stable power supply with coal plants due to close in a matter of years.
Environment Minister Murray Watt gave provisional approval for Woodside's North West Shelf to operate for another 40 years, extending its environmental approval beyond the previous end date of 2030.
It has prompted a furious reaction from environmental groups who say it will lead to higher emissions and threaten Australia's climate commitments.
Consideration of projects under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act does not allow the minister to consider the climate impacts of a project.
Speaking on ABC Brisbane, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on the whole the government was still progressing its aim to cut emissions by 43 per cent by the end of this decade.
"When we look at the overall issue, if you take a step back, we are already more than halfway to delivering on our commitment of 82 per cent renewables by 2030, we're up to 46 per cent as we're speaking here now," he said.
"In order to get that investment in renewables you do need firming capacity, whether it be batteries, hydro or gas, and that is what will encourage that investment and the transition to occur. In Western Australia they are closing their last coal fired power station at Collie in 2027. They are moving to renewables backed by gas, and that will be a really important part of the transition that will occur."
The approval given to Woodside allows it to operate until 2070, but the company could decide to close the plant sooner — and it will remain subject to increasingly stringent requirements to cut emissions over time, or face penalties.
However while the approval is not an expansion of the North West Shelf's footprint, it does open the door to future expansion.
Celebrating yesterday's approval, Woodside chief executive Meg O'Neill said the company was eyeing a new gas field in the region, Browse, for which a project proposal is already under consideration by the government.
"Browse of course is important, particularly in the 2030s and '40s for domestic gas and energy security in Western Australia," she said.
"We will continue to work with the state's [Environment Protection Agency ... and Commonwealth environment department on those Browse approvals."
Woodside has proposed developing 50 production wells in the Browse basin, which would be connected to the North West Shelf processing plant in Karratha through a 900 kilometre pipeline.
Like the NWS proposal given approval yesterday, it has sat under assessment for six years.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the NWS proposal, which was twice-delayed before the election, had been pushed back for political reasons.
"This is a dangerous decision. And how cynical that they postpone this decision until after the election, knowing full well that people would be horrified that they have approved fossil fuels out to 2070," Senator Waters said.
While the Greens say the new Environment Minister Murray Watt has "failed at the first hurdle" in his first major decision in that portfolio, there remains an optimism that this term of government will see progress on environmental reform, particularly to the ageing EPBC Act.
Independent MP Allegra Spender told Sky News the NWS approval proved the laws were not working.
"We know that we have to get to net zero by 2050, this is four decades of go-ahead on gas, and there's no accounting for the impact of climate change on the environment when this decision was made," Ms Spender said.
"Our environmental laws don't take account of climate change ... it sends very mixed messages to say we're committed to net zero, we're committed to real climate action but let's approve this for the next 40 years, well beyond the timeline of net zero."
Meanwhile, the Coalition is reviewing its own commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a promise it signed up to in late 2021 under former prime minister Scott Morrison.
Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan said he and his party would approach that review with an open mind.
"We haven't had a serious discussion about this for four or five years. We will look at it, we're going to do a study into it, the economic ramifications, new technologies, what we maybe can look at that we haven't looked at as solutions before," Mr Hogan said.
A handful of major countries have not adopted net zero emissions targets by 2050 including Iran and Indonesia.
China and Russia have committed to net zero emissions by 2060, though a number of others with 2050 targets are not on track to meet them.
The only countries that have not ratified the Paris Agreement to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius are Iran, Libya and Yemen, though United States President Donald Trump has also announced his intention to again withdraw from the agreement.