22 May 2025

A controversial forty-year extension to Woodside’s ageing North West Shelf gas project can now get the green light after new Environment Minister Murray Watt refused a legal request to scrutinise its massive risk of climate harm to thousands of nationally significant places, plants and animals.

Fossil fuel giant Woodside wants to extend the operations of its North West Shelf gas project so it can keep processing liquified fossil gas for export until 2070, instead of closing in 2030 as planned. This would fuel almost four billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over five decades.

Today Australia’s new Minister for the Environment, Senator Murray Watt, refused to act on a legal request from volunteer community group Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ). Represented by Environmental Justice Australia, the request asked the Minister to properly assess the climate impacts of the North West Shelf extension on thousands of nationally significant species, places and ecological communities.

Minister Watt’s refusal leaves the way clear for the Albanese government to approve the North West Shelf extension at any time.

ECoCeQ spokesperson Christine Carlisle says: 

‘We’re bitterly disappointed. Senator Murray Watt had a rare opportunity to tackle climate change and he has squandered that opportunity in his first significant decision.

‘The Albanese government is failing to act on the crucial task of reducing climate damage from fossil fuels. They’re stuck in the last century. The North West Shelf extension will create massive emissions until 2070 – it’s a carbon bomb that condemns our grandchildren to a superheated, unstable climate.’

‘The politics is not easy. Standing up to the mining lobby is not easy. But the science is clear.’

BACKGROUND

The North West Shelf extension was one of the projects that formed part of an epic legal bid by the Environment Council of Central Queensland, known as the Living Wonders reconsideration requests.

In July 2022, the Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ) (represented by Environmental Justice Australia) requested the federal Environment Minister reconsider the environmental risk assessment for 19 large coal and gas projects under Australia’s national environment laws.

Alongside the requests, over 3000 documents of scientific evidence were submitted. ECoCeQ argued the risk assessment of these coal and gas projects should recognise that their climate impact will harm close to 2,000 nationally significant species, places, and ecological communities includes iconic wildlife like koalas and turtles, as well as World and National Heritage areas like the Great Barrier Reef, the Tarkine and Kakadu.

What is a reconsideration request?

• Reconsideration requests are made under Australia’s environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC Act).
• The primary purpose of a reconsideration request is to ask the Minister to reconsider their assessment of the impacts of a proposed project. In the case of the Living Wonders reconsideration requests, ECoCeQ asked the Minister to reconsider the assessment of pending coal and gas proposals to account for climate change impacts.
• In addition to the reconsideration request from ECoCeQ, the Albanese government yesterday also rejected reconsideration requests on different grounds by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and the Conservation Council of WA in relation to the North West Shelf extension.

Woodside’s North West Shelf

Situated in the northwest of Western Australia in the Pilbara, near the city of Karratha, the energy giant’s North West Shelf is already Australia’s largest producing gas project. The existing project includes key processing, storage and offloading facilities.

During the last 25 years of Australia’s environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, 99.9% of fossil fuel projects have been approved. This is why communities have been fighting hard to fix the Act and include specific climate pollution considerations.

During the election, Prime Minister Albanese Anthony Albanese vetoed the government’s “nature positive” legislation after pressure from an alarmed oil and gas resources sector in Western Australia.

But what about the Safeguard Mechanism?

By far the biggest climate impact of the North West Shelf will happen when the gas it produces is burned. While the NWS extension will likely be covered by the Safeguard Mechanism, this only relates to the emissions produced at the project site – a tiny fraction of the overall carbon footprint.

Also, although the Safeguard Mechanism is the Australian government’s main policy for reducing industrial emissions, it doesn’t actually prevent companies from creating greenhouse gas pollution. In effect, companies can keep polluting, they just have to buy carbon credits – for example from tree planting projects – to reduce their “net emissions” on paper.

The issue is that carbon credits are not a valid compensation for fossil fuel emissions.

When fossil fuels are extracted and burned, they release greenhouse gases that have been trapped for billions of years. Trees can only store carbon for a couple of hundreds of years, at most. So, the amount of climate-warming pollution created by gas projects, mines and other facilities covered by the safeguard mechanism will – with the way the system currently works – continue to increase.

The climate reality

The world’s scientists and the International Energy Agency say to keep global heating to safer levels there can be no new coal and gas. Pacific leaders are also demanding Australia stop approving new coal and gas to give their low-lying islands a fighting chance.

For media inquiries contact: Miki Perkins, 03 8341 3110, [email protected]