Lock the Gate Alliance has condemned fracking company Origin Energy for refusing to provide shareholders with details of likely greenhouse emissions from new gas basins it is exploring in the NT, QLD, and WA in its “Climate Transition Action Plan”, released today.
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Carmel Flint said the Climate Plan was flawed because it didn’t take into account the likely huge emissions from these areas if exploration proceeds to development.
Origin is conducting exploratory fracking operations in tenements at various stages of development in the NT’s Roper Gulf, Queensland’s Lake Eyre, and WA’s Kimberley regions.
“We know that fracking the NT’s Roper-Gulf region alone would create a carbon bomb, yet Origin is exploring across three vast new gas basins, including in some of the most precious natural areas in Australia like the Kimberley and Lake Eyre Basin floodplains,” Ms Flint said.
A recent analysis by Reputex revealed that under a high development scenario, fracked gas from the NT’s Beetaloo Basin alone would generate 1.4 billion tonnes over 20 years - almost three times Australia’s annual emissions.
“It beggars belief that Origin thinks it can simply erase these predicted emissions from its climate plan, instead of providing modelled scenarios. Origin is greenwashing so it can keep spending capital on new gas basins while pretending there are no climate consequences,” Ms Flint said.
“Origin needs to model the likely greenhouse emissions from opening new gasfields, not ignore them. Failing to include emissions from these gas basins falls dismally short on the transparency and credibility required by the global Say on Climate initiative, under which this plan was developed.
“The International Energy Agency has made it very clear that there can be no new gasfields if the world is to reach net zero emissions by 2050 - but here Origin pretends that it can keep pursuing new gasfields while meeting a net zero trajectory. It defies logic.
“It is communities on the frontline of Origin’s gas exploration and communities on the frontline of the climate crisis who will suffer most from this underhanded attempt to disguise the true climate impacts of Origin’s gas agenda.
“It is very disappointing that Origin has chosen to ignore its climate and emissions related disclosure obligations in relation to plans in new gas basins. Keeping shareholders in the dark is bad corporate practice and Origin can expect a backlash at the AGM.”
ENDS