December 19, 2017: The proposal to open up thousands of square kilometres of Australia’s ocean environment to new oil and gas exploration while committing to reducing emissions is incredibly hypocritical and shows the government are in the pocket of fossil fuel industries.

The Australian government today released 21 new proposed drilling blocks, including in the Great Australian Bight, for public consultation [1], with several in protected marine parks and breeding grounds for endangered whales.

“Hours before the government released a review into their climate policies and re-affirmed the need to reduce carbon emissions they go and open up thousands of square kilometres to new oil drilling,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Campaigner, Nathaniel Pelle, said.

“Putting more of Australia’s priceless marine environment in the path of oil spills and damaging seismic testing is bad enough, but the hypocrisy of committing Australia to further emissions-intensive fossil fuel extraction as the rest of the world begins the transition towards clean energy is breathtaking.”

Last week the World Bank committed to phasing out investment in oil and gas by 2019 and a number of countries, including the UK, France, India, and Norway, have committed to banning petrol-powered vehicles over the next few decades.

“Data released by the Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg today show that Australia will miss the 2020 Kyoto Target by a full 5 per cent and will be unable to achieve targets under the Paris Climate Accords,” Pelle said.

“Despite this we are committing to opening up thousands of kilometres to oil companies with a history of environmental destruction and paying little to no tax, so they can drill and burn more oil.

“The Australian government must listen to the huge community opposition to oil drilling and cease their undying support for fossil fuel industries.”

Notes for editors:

[1] https://consult.industry.gov.au/offshore-resources-branch/2018-acreage-release/

[2] http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/review-climate-change-policies

 

For interviews contact:

Simon Black

Greenpeace Australia Pacific Senior Media Campaigner

0418 219 086 / [email protected]