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In response to Resources Minister Madeleine King’s announcement that the federal government will grant new exploration licences for offshore gas and carbon capture and storage, the Australian Conservation Foundation’s CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said:
“Expanding the highly-polluting gas industry is a recipe for climate disaster.
“The burning of gas is supercharging heatwaves, bushfires, flooding and coral bleaching in Australia and around the world.
“While the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals means no new coal, oil or gas, the Albanese government is acting like it has an exemption from the laws of science.
“Saying this gas is for domestic use is no excuse when more than 80% of the gas extracted in Australia is exported, a portion of which could stay in Australia and be used to manage an orderly transition to clean energy.
“Rapidly moving from fossil fuels to renewables is a much better way to secure our energy future than to drill for more climate-heating gas that won’t come online for years.
“The government’s blind faith in carbon capture and storage – a technology that has the primary purpose of extending the life of fossil fuel industries – is extremely worrying.
“Carbon capture and storage is playing a similar role for Labor that nuclear is for the Coalition – it’s the pipe dream that justifies ongoing fossil fuel use.
“Carbon capture and storage is prohibitively expensive and can at best only deal with a tiny proportion of Australia’s climate-heating emissions.
“This announcement rings alarm bells about the government’s Future Made in Australia.
“Is the Future Made in Australia really about helping regions that have long relied on fossil fuels move to clean energy, or is it about replacing coal with gas?
“Switching from one fossil fuel to another is not a clean energy transition.
“ACF urges the Albanese government to stop trying to walk both sides of the street on energy.”
