Resources Minister Madeleine King has announced government’s key economic reforms — the Future Made in Australia policy — will be supported by the new Future Gas Strategy.
The Future Gas Strategy adds more concrete detail to the government’s intent to use gas as a transitional fuel in the process of establishing a renewable-led energy grid.
The intent is to ensure electricity supply remains reliable and affordable to support consumer demands, and what the government hopes will be a growing industrial base.
The strategy is centred on six principles that will underpin government policy on gas:
- Australia is committed to supporting global emissions reductions to reduce the impacts of climate change and will reach net zero emissions by 2050.
- Gas must remain affordable for Australian users throughout the transition to net zero.
- New sources of gas supply are needed to meet demand during the economy-wide transition.
- Reliable gas supply will gradually and inevitably support a shift towards higher-value and non-substitutable gas uses. Households will continue to have a choice over how their energy needs are met.
- Gas and electricity markets must adapt to remain fit for purpose throughout the energy transformation.
- Australia is, and will remain, a reliable trading partner for energy, including LNG and low-emission gases.
King said the comprehensive strategy will help drive innovation in the use of lower-emission gasses.
“It is clear we will need continued exploration, investment and development in the sector to support the path to net zero for Australia and for our export partners, and to avoid a shortfall in gas supplies,” she said.
“Gas will remain an important source of energy through to 2050 and beyond, and its uses will change as we improve industrial energy efficiency, firm renewables, and reduce emissions.”
King explicitly connects the Future Gas Strategy to the Future Made in Australia policy, saying gas will be “crucial” to ensuring Australia is a reliable supplier of critical minerals in the future. the government says will be integral to the high-tech manufacturing, and refinement processes the government is hoping the policy will kickstart.
But the use of gas to support a transition remains controversial. Just hours after the release of the strategy, environmental groups started to criticise the strategy.
The timing is unfortunate for the government, with the policy dropped less than 24 hours after The Guardian published a survey of world’s leading climate scientists. The grim consensus is the planet is headed for between 2.5 and 3 degrees of warming, and climate scientists feel “hopeless” to prevent it.
With much of Australia extremely vulnerable to climate change, some places domestically have already warmed more than the “best case” scenario of less than 1.5 degrees. It’s important to note that extreme weather effects generated by warming are more exponential than linear, and the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees of warming is akin to the weight difference between a hatchback, and a small truck.
Head of policy and advocacy at the Climate Council Jennifer Rayner said the Future Gas Strategy was a “regressive echo of the past”.
“The strategy seems to ignore forecasts of a global oversupply of gas and the government’s own plans to develop the workforce and supply chain for clean industries, which can power the next era of Australian prosperity if we go all in on them now,” she said.
“This can be Australia’s moment to start a sensible phase-out of gas as we scale up the clean alternatives. More gas is a bad bet, against a safe climate future and a thriving clean economy.
“Today’s announcement is more Back to the Future than Future Made in Australia. Australia is already using less gas, so the suggestion we need more of it sounds like Scott Morrison’s ‘gas-led recovery’, not Anthony Albanese’s ‘renewable energy superpower’.”
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