Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

  (a) Australia has signed the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030;

  (b) methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere and is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period;

  (c) the fossil fuel sector accounts for nearly 40 per cent of Australia's methane emissions; and

  (d) the International Energy Agency highlights that methane emissions from oil and gas are some of the easiest to abate; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

  (a) enact effective national methane regulations to limit venting and flaring of gas;

  (b) implement best practice regulations from the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership; and

  (c) use the Safeguard Mechanism and other legislative pathways to drive methane capture.

Last year, Australia signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut 30 per cent of methane emissions by 2030. Most people think methane comes just from agriculture. We always get an outcry from the Nationals members about meat production, but that's only half the contribution of methane in Australia. Fossil fuel mining creates 40 per cent of our methane emissions. Natural gas is methane, and all too often it is left just to leak out into the air. Gas is at record high prices and it's just leaking out, so we're losing resources, risking energy supply and cooking the planet. It makes no sense.

Methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. The fossil fuel industry in Australia is releasing to the atmosphere large quantities of gas that should be captured and brought to market. The International Energy Agency found that fossil fuel companies in Australia are emitting around twice the methane that the government reports to the UNFCCC. This is now on satellite data. A recent satellite study from SRON, a Dutch space research institute, identified methane plumes across Australian coalmines. They estimated that Glencore's Hail Creek mine in Queensland was emitting 15 per cent more methane than the total methane emissions reported by all open-cut mines in Queensland combined.

In January, the east coast was facing ministerial intervention to keep the lights on, and energy prices were skyrocketing. The coalition and the media were obsessing about us needing new gas fields because there wasn't enough supply. To give you an idea, Mr Speaker, in January, during that perceived period of shortage, AEMO and the ACCC identified that we needed 30 petajoules of gas on top of the current supply. The Environmental Defence Fund has identified that our annual methane emissions from leakage—we're just letting it drift out—is 77 petajoules. So we could have met any shortage without opening up new wells.

If we were in a drought and we had a leaking tap of water drip, drip, dripping away, we would fix it. We would not say: 'She'll be right. Let that tap keep leaking. Let's go and open a new well.' It's time we did the same for methane and gas. The government has to put in some gas leakage restrictions. The amount of gas leaking from Australian oil, gas and coal mines each year is about five per cent of our annual usage. The International Energy Agency's annual methane tracker report, released last Tuesday, shows that methane emissions released through the fossil fuel supply chain are rising, even though technologies are available to cost-effectively capture and sell that gas.

We have an opportunity. The safeguard mechanism reforms are an important opportunity for the government to bring in sensible measures for capturing and using that gas. But the effectiveness of the safeguard mechanism will depend on the accuracy of the data it is based on. The current reporting framework is too lax to ensure accuracy, so I've proposed an amendment to fix this. Currently, most reports on oil and gas activities are based on national averages rather than actuals. This needs to change. They have to be from real data. The safeguard mechanism reform process is an important moment to address energy sector methane emissions.

This is crucial for dealing with global warming. The fossil fuel industry can cut methane cheaply. We need to do this. The Environmental Defence Fund found that, by focusing on the energy sector, Australia could cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, below a cost of $33 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. The European Union will require importers to report methane emissions from supply chains, conduct regular leak detection and repair programs, and cease methane venting and flaring in domestic oil and gas production. Australia's largest gas importer, Japan, has signalled its preference for low-emissions gas, yet currently in Australia there is no national regulation preventing venting and flaring of methane; it is just allowed to leak.

So I call on the Albanese government: get serious about these leaks; enact effective national methane regulations to limit venting and flaring of gas; implement best-practice regulations from the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership; and use the safeguard mechanism and other legislative pathways to drive methane capture and apply global best-practice standards consistently across fossil fuel projects. If we want to deal with global warning, we have to deal with methane.

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