Gas is burning our climate faster, and Australia’s part of the problem

Earth is on track to experience the hottest year on record. It comes on the heels of another record-breaking 365 days of scorching temperatures, raging fires, floods and storms wreaking mayhem in all corners of the globe. I look on with horror as the gas, coal and oil industries continue to set fire to our kids’ future.

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 gave us hope. It set out a vital international framework aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial baseline, to help protect the climate, our oceans, precious coral reefs, forests and all other life on Earth.

Illustration by Joe BenkeCredit:

So far, we have collectively failed to meet this global ambition by not cutting climate pollution fast enough, with 15 of the past 16 months hotter by more than 1.5 degrees, as confirmed by the Copenicus Climate Change Service.

This dangerous acceleration in global heating has happened in my lifetime. Since the 1970s, the average increase in temperature has been around 1.4–1.5 degrees over all land on Earth, with the oceans also subject to record-breaking heat.

When I was a child the gas industry was firing up, hiring expensive public relations firms to spread false hopes of a cleaner and cheaper fuel than dirty coal. The gas industry continues to spin these tales. The cold hard truth is that so-called “natural gas” is methane, the second-largest contributor to global heating. Measured over a 20-year period, this gas is around 85 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and has likely contributed at least a third of the warming so far.

An exploratory gas well on Tanumburini Station in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.Credit: Justin McManus

Vast amounts of methane escape during the mining, processing and transportation of gas. According to a recent Cornell University study, liquefied natural gas results in climate pollution 33 per cent worse than coal. There is nothing natural about digging into prehistoric pockets of the earth to unleash gas that is supercharging global warming when the Earth’s climate and natural systems face tipping points of no return.

At least 40 per cent of Australia’s energy is already provided by renewable sources, including solar, wind and hydro. South Australia has reached 100 per cent from clean energy in many weeks of the year. Renewable electricity can be the central and dominant source of all of Australia’s energy needs, not too far in the future if we get this right, according to experts at the Grattan Institute.

We must remember that about 80 per cent of Australia’s gas is exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a majority of that is royalty-free. We are giving it away to big multinational companies. What’s even more absurd, as revealed in recent days, is that despite our plentiful resources, we are likely to have to import gas to keep the heating on over the coming winters. But while gas will be part of the energy mix over the next few years, imported or not, residential and commercial gas consumption is forecast to decline due to the rapid rollout of electrification backed by cheaper renewable energy and storage.

Contrary to industry claims, new gas production and infrastructure is not needed in the transition to renewable energy, as outlined in a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. As it points out, over the coming years, the Australian Energy Market Operator expects renewable energy will continue to displace coal, scaling to meet electricity demand, firmed up mainly by battery storage and pumped hydro.

By ploughing ahead with opening new coal and gas fields, Australia is heading in a direction the climate can’t afford.

Earlier this year I was shocked to find out my super fund UniSuper was the biggest investor in Australia’s largest gas infrastructure and pipeline company APA. This company plans to enable fracking of the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory. Together with 1045 scientists, leading academics and the clean energy finance advocacy organisation Market Forces, we called on UniSuper and APA to end their backing of gas fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. Following our call, UniSuper sold 100 per cent of its shares in APA. It’s a start, but there are dangers ahead.

The scale of climate pollution threatened by fracking Beetaloo is mindboggling. According to Climate Analytics, the emissions from just one of the Beetaloo gas mining companies, Tamboran, could reach up to 2.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over 25 years. This is the equivalent of running the massive coal-fired power station at Eraring in NSW for 194 years.

There are sound scientific reasons why mining gas and particularly fracking is terrible for human health and the climate.

Let’s be clear. Gas is not clean. Not only does gas warm the planet, it contributes to ground-level ozone and other contaminants, resulting in more severe asthma in children, higher risk of birth defects and leukaemia, more hospitalisations and deaths due to heart attacks, respiratory diseases and some cancers as outlined in Sydney University research.

The impacts of fracking on health and the environment have led to bans on the process in Victoria, Tasmania, most of Western Australia and countries across Europe including France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Governments must not allow fracking in Australia when renewable energy options backed by battery storage and investment in transmission are available at scale now. The costs of steaming ahead with more gas and coal are too great.

On the current trajectory, unless we rein in rampant attempts by companies to mine more coal, gas and oil, we are facing average global temperature increases of at least 2.1 to 3.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels this century, and 3.3 to 5.7 degrees in the worst-case scenario.

A 2- to 3-degree temperature increase would mean severe climate-related disasters, global food shortages and some summers so hot that stepping outside could be lethal. More than 3 degrees and we would also face extreme droughts and famine for billions of people, global chaos and the prospect of climate change spiralling out of control.

We simply cannot wait to ditch our addiction to fossil fuels. The lucky country needs to fix its act, embrace clean and renewable energy wholeheartedly and get off gas and coal for good.

Lesley Hughes is professor emerita at Macquarie University and councillor with the Climate Council of Australia.