WA holds the key to Australia’s emissions goals. Can a government so committed to gas deliver?

Environmentalists say connecting the Scarborough gas field to the Burrup Park LNG plant would create Australia’s most polluting fossil fuel project. Photograph: Krystle Wright/The Guardian

On 12 February 2019 the premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, attended a dinner with the board of Woodside – just a few weeks before two highly controversial decisions that would be worth billions for some of the biggest players in the WA gas industry, including Woodside.

At the time, WA’s Environmental Protection Agency was finalising an important policy on offsets for the oil and gas industry.