Western Australia's new greenhouse gas guidelines governing emissions intensive projects across the state have drawn a lukewarm response from conservation groups and the state's mining and energy lobby.
The guidelines will require high-emitting developments to bring their carbon emissions down to net zero in a straight line from 2030 to 2050.
Created by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the new rules are seen by conservation groups as not doing enough when it comes to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
There are also concerns from WA's resources industry lobby that the rules could impact the feasibility of new projects, and be out of step with the recently revised federal safeguard mechanism, which aims to see emissions reduced by an average of 4.9 per cent each year until 2030.
What are the new rules?
Since 2020, the EPA has required a greenhouse gas management plan from proponents that want to develop a new project that directly emits more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The measure put projects in line with the national safeguard mechanism, introduced in 2016, which required projects to keep emissions to or below a baseline figure.
In practice the EPA has used its 2020 guideline to start imposing conditions on high-emitting projects where they must meet regular step-downs in emissions every few years through a management plan.
The EPA's revised guideline, released last week, formalised the need for new projects to meet, as a minimum, a straight-line trajectory of emissions decline to net zero by 2050.
It also added a new requirement for projects with Scope 2 emissions greater than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to have a greenhouse gas management plan.
Scope 2 emissions are carbon emissions released during the creation of power that has been purchased from another entity.
Resources industry reacts
The EPA released its new guidelines one week after the federal government revised the national safeguard mechanism to require Australia's largest emitters to collectively reduce their emissions by 4.9 per cent each year to 2030.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) had wanted the EPA to hold-off on releasing the revised guidelines to take more time to digest the national law change.
CME chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said the chamber was concerned parts of the new EPA guidelines were potentially misaligned with the safeguard mechanism.
"We look forward to ongoing discussions with the EPA to ensure the scheme can meet its objectives without further impacting the feasibility of projects," she said.
The CME's submission to the EPA's draft version of the new guideline was against new requirement for projects with Scope 2 emissions greater than 100,000 tonnes, and critical of a straight-line trajectory to net zero.
"Implicit in this minimum expectation is the inference that proposals that don't have a straight-line trajectory to net zero, or can't achieve net zero, will not be approved in WA," the submission said.
"This appears counterintuitive to a broader objective of encouraging proponents to seek to apply best-practice emissions control, and to achieve greenhouse gas emissions that are as low as reasonably practicable.
"The technology to mitigate emissions from all industrial processes is still developing."
An EPA spokesman said the guidelines already took into account other laws like the safeguard mechanism.
Conservationists concerned emissions will rise
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found emission cuts needed to be "deep, rapid and sustained" in the next decade if warming was to be limited to 1.5 degrees.
The EPA agrees with the IPCC's goal in its new guidelines and takes the view reductions in WA emissions should be made beyond its policy, which only deals with new projects and not existing ones.
But Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) fossil fuels program manager, Anna Chapman, said it had been hoping for a stronger environmental stance by the EPA.
She said the EPA could have reduced the threshold for carbon reductions from emitters of 100,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes, to be in-line with the European Union's emission trading scheme.
"The new guideline doesn't appear to align with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees," Ms Chapman said.
"From our perspective, any approvals of new or expanded gas projects in WA put our state and federal emissions targets at risk … emissions need to be cut now."
Groups like CCWA are also concerned the majority of emissions from major gas projects, which occur when the resource is burned by customers, are not captured by state or federal schemes.
An EPA spokesman said WA proponents would need to demonstrate deep and substantial cuts by 2030 to the watchdog.
"And a straight line [to net zero] after that to 2050, and if this is not achievable then proponents will need to clearly demonstrate why," he said.
Under the direction from the state government, the EPA has in recent years reviewed greenhouse gas management plans for three of WA's largest emitting projects — Gorgon, Wheatstone and the North West Shelf.
The projects are now required to meet net zero by 2050 with five-yearly reductions in emissions.
Recently, the EPA indicated it would welcome a state government referral to review Woodside's Pluto LNG plant, so it could consider similar measures.
The WA government has not indicated whether it will refer the project back to the EPA.
