Oil & Gas is delivering for a low emissions future

There’s much talk, theory, and positioning around what industries and government must do to tackle climate change.   

But right now — APPEA and its members, representing a majority of Australia’s upstream oil and gas industry, are already taking action at both an operational and corporate level.  

Contrary to many misconceptions, we’re both talking the talk and walking the walk. 

In keeping with this, we have decided updated APPEA’s climate change policy principles to reflect members efforts to evolve, along broader government policies.  

The result, Australia’s Cleaner Energy Future, the third revision of our climate change principles and the first in more than five years, is the result of extensive collaboration and it will underscore the wider Australian oil and gas industry’s position on the important issue of climate change. 

While our oil and gas industry makes considerable investments into technologies compatible with cleaner energy goals, including carbon capture and storage sequestration systems and blue hydrogen development, there is always more that can be done to ensure the oil and gas industry’s continued viability and sustainability in a changing world. 

Our new climate change principles acknowledge the importance of ensuring the rise in global temperature this century does not exceed two degrees Celsius when compared to previous levels, for example, and we believe that oil and gas company policies should seek to support this aim as part of a wider contribution towards a global goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.  

It is also important that climate policies are efficient, and ours dictate that Australian policymakers should seek to set clear, long-term targets for emissions reduction in a way that can allow the oil and gas industry a degree of predictability to ensure it has sufficient time to adapt to future changes. These climate policies should therefore be integrated with economic, social, technological and energy policies. 

Our new policies also stress the need for the Australian Government to pursue economically efficient climate policies that maximise jobs and investment, ensuring the nation’s competitiveness on the international stage. This includes promoting our world-class LNG export sector to support decarbonisation efforts overseas in displacing more emissions intensive coal. 

Finally, we support universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy across the world, in keeping with UN sustainable development goals. As the world grows in population and society becomes increasingly urbanised, the demand for global energy will continue to rise. Securing energy supplies, including natural gas, is crucial to maintaining a healthy, modern society.