Before it won the 2022 federal election, the Labor Party promised stronger action to curb climate change. Since then, it has approved coal and gas projects that will emit a cumulative 6.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
That is an amount roughly equal to 15 years of Australia’s total current annual emissions, according to recent analysis by the Climate Council.
In total, 31 new projects or extensions of existing projects have been waved through: 27 by former environment minister Tanya Plibersek and four by the man who replaced her, Murray Watt.
There are even more in the pipeline. In addition to those 31, the Climate Council report released a few weeks ago identifies another 38 new or expanded coal projects seeking federal government approval. Collectively, they would produce more than 5.7 billion tonnes of coal over their lifetimes, equivalent to more than 14 years of current production. In some cases, they are planned to continue operation well beyond 2050, the date by which Australia is committed to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
One project now part-way through the process of assessment under the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, an extension of the huge BHP/Mitsubishi Peak Downs mine in Queensland, aims to continue operations for almost another century – out to 2116.
By the calculations of its opponents, including The Australia Institute and activist group Lock the Gate, the open-cut mine would produce some three billion tonnes of climate pollution – carbon dioxide and methane – as well as more than a billion tonnes of coal.
Another BHP/Mitsubishi mine in central Queensland, Caval Ridge, won approval last December to continue operations until 2056. The Climate Council report lists the emissions from Caval Ridge as “unknown”; Lock the Gate says 438 million tonnes.
Yet another of the joint venture’s projects, Saraji, would produce the equivalent of 300 million tonnes of CO2 over its extended 20- to 30-year life.
If Peak Downs’ existing plans were to be green-lit, the collective emissions would be almost as big and damaging as those from Woodside Energy’s recently approved extension of the North West Shelf Project. That gas venture is planned to continue operations until 2070, well beyond the notional net zero target date of 2050.
The Woodside project gained significant attention due to the potential threat it posed to more than one million ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs – thought to be the world’s largest collection of rock art, some dating back 50,000 years.
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