by Maddison Connaughton
Agence France-Presse
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Gas and mining projects in Australia are emitting significantly more greenhouse gases than their operators promised, with an environmental group reporting Thursday that one pipeline was releasing 20 times the initial estimate.
During an 18-month investigation, researchers from the Australian Conservation Foundation found one-in-five fossil fuel companies reporting their emissions had exceeded the amount approved by the government.
One gas pipeline in the state of Queensland, operated by Origin Energy, has released 2,000 percent over the amount it predicted before the project was approved.
Meanwhile, Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project off Australia’s west coast — operated with partners ExxonMobil, Shell, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and JERA — was found to have emitted double the emissions initially promised.
Chevron’s draft environmental impact statement boasted the Gorgon project “will be amongst the most efficient LNG developments in the world” using a carbon capture and storage project to reduce its emissions to four million tonnes of carbon equivalent annually.
The actual annual emissions reported between 2016-20 instead averaged 7.99 million tonnes, the equivalent of 1.7 million vehicles driven for a year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
To determine these figures, the research team examined the greenhouse gas emissions estimated by companies in their applications for government approval and compared these with the emissions reported to the clean energy regulator once the project was up and running.
Conveyor belts carry coal from the open cut mine to the Loy Yang B power station in the Latrobe Valley, 150km east of Melbourne on August 13, 2009. The Australian Senate voted down plans for an emissions trading scheme that aimed to reduce carbon pollution by up to 25 percent over the next decade. (Photo by PAUL CROCK / AFP)
These emissions include carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.
As part of its investigation, the Australian Conservation Fund also looked at emissions from coal mines and found a similar pattern of underestimation.
It found Whitehaven’s Maules Creek coal mine was emitting up to 4.5 times its initial estimate, while those reported by Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine to the Clean Energy Regulator were about double the amount predicted in its environmental impact statement.
The researchers say there are a range of reasons for the gap between estimated and actual emissions — including a reassessment of how damaging methane is compared to other greenhouse gases.
But even adjusting for that, the group found 20 percent of projects emitted significantly more greenhouse gas than their operator predicted.
The findings come as the International Energy Agency announced Tuesday that emissions by the energy sector were about 70 percent higher than official government figures.
According to data from Climate Watch, Australia has the highest per capita levels of fugitive methane emissions in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — a grouping of rich industrialised nations.
Last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a much-delayed 2050 net-zero emissions target, backing away from demands for a more ambitious 2030 goal.
© Agence France-Presse