Fossil fuel and environmental groups have condemned the Northern Territory Government’s decision to proceed with fracking in the Beetaloo Basin shale gas field.
The development is projected to emit the equivalent of almost three times Australia’s annual domestic emissions over the next two decades.
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Climate Council head of advocacy Dr Jennifer Rayner said, “The Northern Territory Government must have missed the part where the world’s scientists said any new gas or coal would blow our chances of limiting warming to 1.5C. Loudly and repeatedly.
“Fracking stinks and the Beetaloo project is a disaster. The Albanese Government—which was elected on a platform of strong climate action—should step in to stop it. Doing nothing will put Australia’s climate targets and their own promises to the community out of reach.
“The argument that gas is ‘cleaner’ than coal is outrageous. Make no mistake that gas is a polluting fossil fuel that is driving climate change and subsequent climate disasters.”
The Climate Council says all new fossil fuel projects should be put on pause until the Federal Government can properly assess them under a stronger, reformed Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which the federal government agreed to reform in December 2022.
“The Albanese Government needs to fast track its reform of the EPBC Act, so that these carbon bombs can be properly dealt with by federal law,” Dr Rayner said.
“This work is moving far too slowly when we are in the critical decade for climate action. While we wait, climate wrecking projects are getting waved through at the state and territory level. Every week of delay is putting a safer climate further out of reach.”
Speaking at the Smart Energy Conference, ACT Senator David Pocock said, “It’s really worrying that on the same day we find out that Snowy Hydro is a couple of years behind, we find out that the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory will be opened up for fracking.
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“An enormous carbon bomb that will be released. We’ve reached a tipping point when it comes to the acceptance of the need to change—the new climate denial is not disputing the facts of climate change, it’s saying ‘let’s transition and take it slow and continue our fossil fuel developments’.
“We’ve got to be frank, we’re starting from a terrible position and we have so much ground to make up.”
