New evidence says gas exports damage the climate even more than coal. It’s time Australia took serious action

‘Guardian Australia has asked industry leaders and MPs for specific evidence … that LNG has substantially lower emissions than coal across its lifecycle.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The claim that Australian gas exports are “clean” and needed to drive the transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions has become an article of faith for significant parts of the country’s industry, media and political classes – often repeated, only occasionally challenged.

It has buttressed a massive expansion of the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry in the north of the continent over the past decade, with major new developments in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.