Australia’s biggest industrial polluter receives millions in carbon credits despite rising emissions

Chevron’s Gorgon liquified natural gas processing facility was the biggest polluting site for the third year running, with its emissions increasing to 8.8m tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2023-24, up from 8.1m tonnes. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Australia’s biggest industrial climate polluter – Chevron’s Gorgon gas export plant in Western Australia – received the equivalent of millions of dollars in carbon credits from the federal government last year, despite increasing its emissions.

The revelation in government data last week has sparked calls for changes to the safeguard mechanism, the government policy applied to the country’s 219 largest industrial climate polluting facilities.