The Climate Council welcomes the opportunity to comment on the 2021 offshore petroleum acreage release. The Climate Council is concerned that the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (hereby referred to as the Department) is pushing ahead with plans to open up 84,349km2 of new area for gas exploration in offshore Western Australia and Bass Strait – an area greater than the size of Tasmania and the ACT combined – without considering how much this gas could contribute to climate change by increasing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and without identifying any need for new gas.

This submission will outline:

• The urgent need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end new development of fossil fuels, based on the latest science
• Improvements in scientific research in the measurement of methane emissions
• The large contribution of the gas industry to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions

Recommendations

1. Suspend the 2021 offshore gas acreage release and suspend the process to grant new titles for the 2020 acreage release.
2. Introduce a framework to enable impacts of climate change to be considered when assessing future offshore title applications.
3. Fund an independent scientific study, free of industry influence, of gas industry supply chain emissions.

Click here to read the full submission