The Albanese government will not support the Greens’ proposal to insert a climate trigger into national environment laws, according to sources.
The position has come into focus following Environment Minister Murray Watt’s decision to approve Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project extension until 2070.
Mr Watt confirmed the approval on Wednesday, allowing one of the country’s largest LNG operations to continue well beyond the government’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
The decision was made without any consideration of the project’s climate impact as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act does not include this as a factor.
Under the EPBC Act, the minister was only required to assess the project’s impact on matters such as indigenous heritage, including Murujuga rock art on the site.
Sky News Sunday Agenda understands that while the government will proceed with long-promised reforms to the EPBC Act, these will not include a climate trigger.
The government will follow the advice of the 2021 Samuel Review into the EPBC Act—commissioned by former environment minister Sussan Ley.
The Greens have publicly accused Labor of preparing to greenlight the North West Shelf project in secret and failing their first major climate test in government.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the party would “be encouraging environment groups to take legal action against this approval” in a statement on Thursday.
“Approving fossil fuels out to 2070 totally undermines the government’s commitment to net zero by 2050, which is already too late for a safe climate future,” she said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the role of gas in supporting the country’s transition to renewables on Monday.
“You can’t have renewables unless you have firming capacity. You don’t change a transition through warm thoughts,” he told reporters at a press conference.
“You do it through a concrete proposal, which is the expansion of renewables up to 82 per cent of the grid, but the way that that occurs is it needs firming capacity to occur.”
The story of this parliament increasingly appears to be that Labor can pass its agenda with solely Greens support—but so far appears unwilling to adopt any of their key demands.
