It’s official: The biggest methane polluters in the country are the coal and gas industries.
The open methane tool was released today and revealed that all 20 of Australia’s methane hotspots are coal and gas mines, exploding the myth that farming is the biggest cause of methane.
Farmers for Climate Action CEO Natalie Collard said the powerful coal and gas lobbies had falsely claimed farmers were a key cause of the methane problem for years.
‘The coal and gas industries have been using farmers as shields,’ Ms Collard said.
‘Australia can reduce its methane pollution by a huge percentage without impacting our food supply – we need the coal and gas industries to do this for Australia.
‘It’s time to call coal and gas out for the damage they’re doing to farming. Coal and gas are making climate change worse, which is making droughts, fires and floods worse. Our farmers can’t keep farming through repeating droughts, fire and floods.
‘There are many alternative ways to create energy but there are no alternative ways to grow food – we need farmers.’
Holding polluters to account
Natalie Collard says the fact coal and gas companies aren’t even required to directly measure or accurately report their methane pollution is disgraceful.
‘We need to hold polluters to account and we can’t do that if we don’t even count the methane coal and gas are producing,’ she said. ‘Now we learn coal and gas are likely producing double the methane they claim.
‘While farmers are working hard every day to reduce their emissions, including investigating all kinds of methane reduction methods, the coal and gas industry isn’t even properly counting theirs.
‘And worse, Australia exports the vast majority of our gas – we’re allowing gas companies to create this pollution mostly to line their pockets with export dollars, not to power Australian households.
‘Further, coal and gas are not properly decommissioning and remediating their projects,’ said Ms Collard.
‘We need governments to hold polluters to account: We need governments to demand proper decommissioning and rehabilitation bonds from the fossil fuel industry.
‘There are now 50,000 abandoned mines in Australia – we need these rehabilitated.’
Anyone can use the open methane tool, which is available here.
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