The Albanese government has announced plans to increase gas production to meet growing demands and provide support for Australia’s 2025 net zero target.
The Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said the Future Gas strategy aims to keep gas affordable while the country transitions to renewable energy.
“Ensuring Australia continues to have adequate access to reasonably priced gas will be key to delivering an 82 percent renewable energy grid by 2030, and to achieve our commitment to net zero emissions by 2050,” she said.
The announcement, however, has received backlash from The Greens and other environmental groups and has been labeled by Greenpeace as a “betrayal” of Labor’s climate action promise.
Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said that the Labor government has “utterly caved into the fossil fuel lobby.”
“On the same day the world’s scientists are sounding the alarm that we’re heading off a climate cliff, Labor has slammed it’s foot on the gas,” she said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s National Climate Program Manager Gavan McFadzean has also spoken out against the plan, calling it a “blueprint for climate disaster.”
“This strategy is a kick in the guts to the millions of Australians who voted in the Albanese government in May 2022, believing it signaled a new dawn for climate action,” he said.
Despite the criticism, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is defending the government’s plan and reiterated that gas will be essential in assisting with Australia’s transition to renewable energy.
“We support net zero, and gas and its firming capacity as a part of assisting with that pathway to net zero,” he said.
The Future Gas Strategy indicates that the increased gas extractions will likely continue past 2050, despite ongoing calls from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for countries to phase out fossil fuels.
“Achieving net zero emissions by 2050 will require nothing short of the complete transformation of the global energy system,” the IEA report stated.
Gas makes up nearly 20 percent of Australia’s export income and is responsible for 88 percent of electricity generation.
Photo: by Egor Fedorov is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. This image has not been modified.
