Emission Targets, LNG and an Electrifying Future

Following our Editorial decrying the abandonment by the State Government of the challenge of setting interim emissions targets for WA, Professors Peter Newman* and Ray Wills say ‘WA is Making History on Renewables but Can’t Accept Gas is Dying.’

The Editor’s analysis in yesterday’s Editorial in Fremantle Shipping News of the ‘Government removing their own climate target’ suggests that they are wanting to claim success in renewables but allow gas to continue growing. The analysis is probably right.

Climate targets are part of a global exercise that is done locally. We are doing well in renewables and we have been showing the world through multiple popular publications that they can look to us in WA and see that decarbonising the power system really works well. But we are refusing to accept that the historic transition must now shift to accepting that the future does not include gas. The Gulf War has shown multiple reasons for ending oil and gas that now support accelerating their demise.

There will be many frantic discussions with the Federal Government on their proposal, as it appears to conflict with IPCC scenarios and assessments and would make us look like a global ‘lemon’. But we should be seen as a leader not a laggard in this transition.

Credit Alexander Mils for Unsplash

The agenda that we see rather than tinkering with any need for targets is to embrace the electrification/renewables agenda across the whole of our economy not just the electric power sector as that is booming now. They don’t need to worry about reaching their targets as they know exactly how to invest in an accelerated net zero future. It’s the rest of the economy that is needing help and we would say that this needs regulations not local targets as they are all global issues with global targets and the global markets for green exports.

We need to embrace the gas industry with a practical commitment to work on global decarbonisation as that is the issue with gas in our state. Oil is not an issue here as it’s only a tiny part of the global market. The gas industry companies are not seriously reducing their investment in gas and shifting to non-gas projects where they can make money and also survive as a business into the future. The gas industry have not accepted they are in structural decline, which is now obvious.

A WA Government requirement/regulation, supported by the Federal Government, that requires 25% of their profits being reinvested into electrification/renewable energy projects would mean that the State Government was serious about not just saving the planet from global warming but also saving global companies like Woodside from going into a financial spiral and bankruptcy. The State would necessarily have to suffer in covering the costs of closing down their infrastructure when this happens.

All oil/gas companies must move to support this transition to electrification/renewables as was so obviously needed during this Fourth Oil Crisis. That is the agenda that we see rather than tinkering with any need for local targets. The economy now knows that the power systems can electrify/go to renewables as a strong investment for any utility. The only thing stopping the economy from fully decarbonising is a few key issues about industry decarbonising its mineral processing into green/net zero minerals, green/net zero concrete and aviation and shipping fuels. These will require focused investment in R&D and commercial scaling-up from oil/gas industries. Coal is already dead and coal companies are dying. Gas is next.

This would be a historic shift in investment in the future and requires state and federal support not just in partnership projects in these areas, which are happening to a degree, but a clear strategy and regulatory framework to take this seriously. Targets need to now focus on the next big areas to work on and for that we need new survival and security partnerships that remove the need for oil and gas in these specific areas.

It’s time for the gas industry in WA to catch up with the fabulous commitment to renewables in the electric power industry. Then WA can be really proud.

While others have not been referring to this as the fourth oil crisis, we have – and it is a clear opportunity to accelerate the transition away from oil dependence rather than – as is the case with most governments – just responding by subsidising fuel costs.

*By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University and Professor Ray Wills, University of Western Australia

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