North West Shelf project ‘at risk’ from climate ruling
A plan to extend the life of the North West Shelf project for the next 50 years is set to face a legal challenge under international law.
A plan to extend the life of Australia’s massive North West Shelf gas project for the next 50 years is set to face a legal challenge under international law, one of the Pacific’s most prominent climate change ministers has warned.
The Albanese government is close to making a final approval decision on Woodside’s proposal to keep the remote West Australian facility running until 2070, after a provisional green light by Environmental Minister Murray Watt.
The approval is vital for the company’s $30bn development of the Browse gas fields.
But Vanuatu’s Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu said a recent International Court of Justice ruling threw the project into doubt, providing a precedent for a legal challenge in Australia’s courts.
In its advisory opinion less than two months ago, the ICJ said states had legally binding obligations under international law to “address the urgent and existential threat” of climate change.
“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system from emissions – including through fossil fuel production, fossil fuel consumption, the granting of fossil fuel exploration licences or the provision of fossil fuel subsidies – may constitute an internationally wrongful act which is attributable to that state,” the unanimous ruling said, following a submission by Vanuatu.
Mr Regenvanu said while Australia was transitioning its economy “very fast” under the Paris agreement, he reminded Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong just weeks ago when she visited Vanuatu that “that is no longer the only thing you have to abide by”.
“The argument Australia has been making that the domestic transition is sufficient under the Paris Agreement is untenable,” he said on three sidelines of the Pacific Island Forum in Solomon Islands.
“The advisory opinion of the ICJ made it clear that going down the fossil fuel production expansion path is an internationally wrongful act under international law.”
Mr Regenvanu’s comments come as the government prepares to announce both its North West Shelf decision and its interim 2035 target to lower greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of its “net zero” pledge by 2050.
Anthony Albanese is coming under internal Labor pressure to ensure the new target does not fall under the 65 to 75 per cent range below 2005 levels.
The Prime Minister signalled on Wednesday that his government would pledge a less ambitious interim climate change target than some in Labor would like, saying the goal must be “achievable”.
Mr Albanese said climate action was “the key to credibility” in the Pacific, but he pushed back at calls from some nations at the Pacific Island Forum this week for Australia to end fossil fuel exports to lower the nation’s wider carbon footprint.
“Australia determines our own policy,” he said.
“And what we’re doing is transitioning in a way that ensures that there’s energy security, that ensures that there’s community support for action. And my government’s committed to action on climate change.”
The Prime Minister joined with other Pacific leaders in Honiara on Wednesday to establish a new Pacific Resilience Facility to mitigate climate impacts in the region, pledging $100m from Australia for the initiative.
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