Gas fields seven times more polluting than estimate, think tank says

The true climate impact of new onshore gas exploration and extraction has been underestimated by as much as seven times because the Victorian government excluded emissions produced when the gas is burnt.

A moratorium on onshore gas exploration in Victoria will be lifted.

According to a new briefing paper from policy think tank the Australia Institute, the Andrews government's estimates do not count emissions produced when the gas is burnt for heating, cooking or other end uses.

Last month's lifting of the long-standing moratorium on onshore exploration was welcomed by gas producers, unions and manufacturers, which had called for it to be abolished, but environment groups remain fiercely opposed, arguing onshore drilling will drive up greenhouse gas emissions.

When he announced the lifting of the ban, Premier Daniel Andrews pledged any gas would first be made available to Victorian households and businesses.

Read the story from The Age by Miki Perkins - “Gas fields seven times more polluting than estimate, think tank says.”

Government off target for its carbon emissions inventory

Greg Hunt - "astonished
and angry".

The latest federal government carbon emissions inventory shows Australia has increased its emissions and has come under fire for allegedly vastly underestimating the amount of land clearing that has occurred, and its associated emissions.

The Quarterly Update of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, which counts emissions in Australia up to September 2015, says greenhouse gas emissions from land clearing have fallen to record lows.

But Guardian Australia reported last month that a report commissioned by the Wilderness Society showed a land clearing surge in Queensland since 2012 has been so big that it would create emissions roughly equal to those saved by the federal government’s emissions reduction scheme, where they paid other farmers more than $670m to stop cutting down trees.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia's emissions rising and vastly underestimated, says report.”

(“Astonished” is closest to how I feel (although “angry” probably should go ahead of that) when Australia’s Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, can blithely claim that Australia will “meet and beat” its carbon dioxide emissions targets. Either he is telling outright lies or he is totally misinformed, but whatever the case, it does not become an Australian Government Minister.

His mantra of “meet and beat” is sufficient information for those not prepared, or unable, to delve into the whole climate change conversation.

Mr Hunt’s populist “meet and beat” chorus is about him and his party being re-elected and not about genuinely caring for the future of Australia, and Australians – Robert McLean).