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

I support this motion, because the announcement of this approval by the Minister for the Environment and Water yesterday is incredibly concerning and it's important that we debate this question.

I'd like to do a reality check for this parliament: 1.5 degrees is not a goal and it's not a target. In the words of the UN, it's a threshold beyond which great risk and consequences will occur. At the Paris Agreement in 2015, there was a reason that 1.5 was listed and agreed to as being an important threshold that we should not go past. But we're already fast approaching that threshold. We're already there at times. We know that gas is not the solution; we cannot afford more gas. Methane is a major aspect in global warming, and Australia has been called out for underreporting is annual greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 28 million tonnes by failing to record more than 80 per cent of emissions that leak during coal and gas production. This exacerbates the challenge of achieving government targets and makes it absolutely impossible to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees. These decisions made to extend a new gas project are made on the basis that it's going to be scope 3 emissions, not something we're going to have to deal with. But the reality is that we are all going to deal with it because it is all going to impact our warming.

Australia is knowingly underreporting its methane. It's failing to take action, misleading the international community and undermining our Paris Agreement. The government knows this. I've written to the minister for climate change. I've written to the Climate Change Authority. With every gas project you approve, you make that problem worse. We know we are underreporting and we know we are not measuring. There is a recommendation before the minister for climate change to make sure, under the NGER Act review, that we have proper monitoring and measuring of methane emissions, in particular fugitive emissions, but still we have seen no action. We can't keep approving these projects without addressing the emissions and what they're doing—their footprints.

For those that don't know—and this should not need repeating—methane emissions contribute approximately 25 per cent of the emissions of Australia, and methane captures 80 per cent more heat than CO2 in the first 20 years. So every gas project that is approved is fast-tracking climate change. We are fast-tracking global warming. That means you are putting your children at risk; you are putting your communities at risk. It is just incredible that we are still, in 2024, at a time with an opposition that is doing everything it can to counter climate action policy, to put forward every kind of denial, to delay anything feasible with ridiculous proposals. In the meantime, we have a government that is still approving coal and gas, that is approving projects well beyond where they're going to be needed.

We do not have a gas shortage in Australia. Let's be really clear for the Australian people. We have lots of gas but we are allowing companies to export it for great profit rather than prioritising domestic markets. We do not need more gas approvals. What we need are rules that ensure that gas in Australia stays in Australia and that we fast-track the transition for households off gas with electrification. These are simple measures. We can do it, but you need political will and, first and foremost, you need to come and be accountable for the decisions you make, like approving gas projects for Gina Rinehart. I always hear the coalition always talking about the renewables billionaires and saying, 'Where are our possible fossil fuel billionaires?' They're the ones here, getting the handouts and, yet again, getting more projects approved. So come and explain. We should debate it urgently. You cannot have a safe environment for our children and continue approving fossil fuel projects.

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