The Climate Council has today congratulated the Victorian Government for becoming the first state in Australia to put a blanket ban on onshore unconventional gas mining.

The Climate Council’s Professor Will Steffen said unconventional gas is worse from a climate perspective than traditional gas and in some cases, even worse than coal, because of the ‘fugitive emissions’ of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, associated with the extraction process.

“We need to leave over half of the known commercially viable conventional gas sources in the ground if we are to limit global warming to less than 2C. This means gas needs to contract and phase out, not expand”, he said.

“We congratulate the Victorian Government for recognising that tackling climate change and protecting Victoria’s future does not lie in simply switching from one fossil fuel to another.

“We hope to see other states and territories following Victoria’s lead so we can focus on smoothing Australia’s transition to renewable energy systems, including large-scale and distributed energy storage facilities and smarter, more connected grids, rather than using gas, which will continue to damage our climate.”

For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications Jessica Craven on 0400 424 5559 or jess@climatecouncil.org.au

Image Credit: Eastern Star Gas