How the Australian gas industry’s audacious net zero claims stack up – explainer

The argument put forward at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference last week was that the path to net zero was to open up new gas fields. Photograph: Dazman/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Fossil fuel executives gathered in Adelaide last week for a conference of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. They spent much of it making what might seem an audacious claim: that the gas industry is a solution to the climate crisis.

Senior Labor and Coalition MPs turned up to lend their support, and offer to do the industry’s bidding. The head of Santos, Kevin Gallagher, argued it showed gas developers would “ultimately find ourselves on the right side of history”.