A bill that will allow carbon dioxide to be pumped into international waters is expected to pass the Senate after the Coalition indicated it would support the legislation.
Greens senators and the independent senator David Pocock used debate in the Senate on Monday to condemn the legislation as a “sham” and “nothing more than greenwashing” for the expansion of offshore gas projects.
Under the legislation, the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, would be able to grant permits to enable CO2 captured during industrial processes to be exported and stored under the seabed in another country’s waters.
The government has said the bill is necessary to bring Australia’s laws into line with changes to an international treaty on the prevention of marine pollution, known as the London protocol.
The legislation would also allow permits to be issued for “marine geoengineering” research that could be used to combat the climate crisis.
In a Senate debate on Monday, the government said passing the bill would enable it to administer permits for “these internationally emerging activities and ensure legal certainty”.
But the Greens oceans spokesperson Peter Whish-Wilson labelled the bill “a con” and “a sham” that would help facilitate the expansion of gas projects, such as Santos’ Barossa offshore gas project, which proposes the establishment of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility in the depleted Bayu-Undan gas reservoir in waters off Timor-Leste.
“We should feel ashamed as a chamber, in this time of climate emergency, that we are about to pass legislation written for a fossil fuel company, written by a government who takes big donations from fossil fuel companies,” Whish-Wilson told the Senate.
Pocock said the legislation would allow “companies to claim to meet emissions reductions targets while exporting those emissions to other countries”.
“It will enable the expansion of oil and gas projects that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and every credible expert says we cannot afford,” he said.
“It’s tragic, and incredibly disappointing that the government is more interested in supporting fossil fuel companies than it is in protecting our environment, our way of life and indeed our planet.”
The Coalition’s environment spokesperson Jonathon Duniam said the opposition would support the bill as a “sensible and correct path” that had been adopted after a “painstaking” approach by successive governments to the proposed changes, including consideration through parliamentary inquiries.
“We hope the government will discharge the responsibilities they have in this area sensibly and vigilantly at a time when certainty for international investors has been stripped away by actions of this government, such as under the safeguard mechanism,” he said.
Government senator Karen Grogan told the Senate that any application for permits under the legislation would be subject to a robust and comprehensive assessment process.
She said where projects did not stack up “they won’t happen. But where they do, they will”.
“The intent here is to use every option we have available to us to reach net zero by 2050 to reduce emissions and to ensure that we stop the planet warming,” she said.
