clarifies additional court challenge in last paragraph
Australian independent Woodside Energy's Scarborough gas project will face greater scrutiny over its impact on the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef, after the Federal Court of Australia dismissed the company's attempt to have a legal challenge dismissed.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) last June filed an injunction seeking to have the climate effects of Woodside's LNG development in Western Australia's (WA) Carnarvon basin analysed under federal law. The case is now listed for a management hearing on 7 June.
Woodside says the $12bn, 30pc complete project is critical to maintaining production at its Pluto LNG train 1, while a second train will process the majority of an estimated 8mn t/yr in LNG exports.
Projects assessed by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority are typically exempt from federal environmental law. But the ACF argues the law requires assessment because of the project's emissions risking the health of the reef, which biologists say will struggle to cope with further ocean warming. Woodside said the project will reduce Asian nations' reliance on dirtier, coal-fired energy and that the Scarborough field is estimated to contain only 0.1pc of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Woodside forecasts the project will emit 28.5mn t/yr of CO2e across scopes 1, 2 and 3 mainly through its customers. ACF documents claim the total emissions will result in a 0.000394°C increase in global average sea surface temperature, which will result in the death of millions of coral during a bleaching event.
Lower Australian courts have begun recommending against fossil fuel projects on the basis of CO2 emissions in recent years, with the Alpha North thermal coal project in Queensland struck down by the state's Land Court. But the previous Liberal-National federal government last year won an appeal against a previous Federal Court ruling that it was required to consider the future effect of emissions on the nation's youth when assessing new mines.
Woodside maintains it will produce the first LNG from Scarborough in 2026. But the project has faced significant legal battles with two court challenges surrounding Pluto 2 dismissed last year and another continuing in WA's Supreme Court. A Federal Court decision halting the development of fellow Australian independent Santos' Barossa gas field has affected cultural site permits needed for offshore projects.
