Arabic version: دعوات لكين لتصحيح ادعاء بشأن انبعاثات بيتالو

According to The Guardian, resources minister Madeleine King is facing calls to correct a statement that greenhouse gas emissions from development of the Beetaloo gas basin in the Northern Territory are accounted for and offset. King made the comment while defending her support for the basin at the National Press Club in Canberra.

King said the Beetaloo basin south of Darwin was an important resource for the Northern Territory, Australia’s east coast gas supply and export markets. She referred to the 2018 Pepper inquiry, which made 135 recommendations on fracking, including that onshore shale gas development should not increase Australia’s total emissions. King said the Northern Territory government had implemented the recommendations, adding: “My understanding from those recommendations is that the emissions are accounted for and offset, but I would have to check that.”

The Northern Territory government does not require emissions from the Beetaloo basin to be offset. Under the federal safeguard mechanism, facilities emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year must address direct facility emissions, rather than full lifecycle emissions from extraction, processing, transport and use of the gas.

Research by Tim Baxter of Naru Research found that about 95% of emissions expected from four Beetaloo gas projects this decade would not have to be offset. Baxter said the safeguard mechanism did not meet the Pepper inquiry’s position that all emissions occurring in Australia should be fully offset. Bree Ahrens, acting chief head of Environment Centre NT, called on King to “correct the public record”.

A spokesperson for King said successive Northern Territory governments had accepted and implemented all 135 Pepper review recommendations. The spokesperson said the safeguard mechanism required shale gas facilities, including Beetaloo extraction facilities, to have net zero emissions if they emitted more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.