{"id":170488,"date":"2025-11-14T14:52:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatecouncil.org.au\/?post_type=resource&p=170488"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:53:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T05:53:31","slug":"australias-environment-law-reforms-deliver-more-protection-pollution","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.climatecouncil.org.au\/resources\/australias-environment-law-reforms-deliver-more-protection-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Australia\u2019s environment law reforms deliver more pollution than protection?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Right now, coal and gas corporations are building harmful projects across Australia, without their climate impacts being considered under our national environment law<\/a>. The law ignores the climate damage that any new coal, oil or gas project built anywhere does to people, places and wildlife everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Albanese Government has an opportunity to fix this through its environment law reforms, currently being considered by Parliament. However, the Government\u2019s proposed reforms fail to meaningfully protect our environment from the ravages of climate pollution. This means that the 42 coal and gas projects already lined up for approval under our environment law could go ahead with no consideration of their climate impacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These projects would add to the 32 new or expanded coal, oil and gas developments already approved by the Albanese Government since 2022. In total, these projects have disclosed expected annual emissions of nearly 13 million tonnes, equivalent to an extra 6 million cars on Australian roads every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the fossil fuel projects the Albanese Government has already approved.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More polluting projects in the pipeline<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There are at least 42 coal and gas projects currently in the pipeline for environmental assessment, with most of these actively seeking approval, and more than half of these applications made since 2023. Most are seeking approval to operate for decades, with about a third seeking to operate even beyond Australia\u2019s 2050 net zero target<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unleashing millions of tonnes of climate pollution <\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Estimated emissions are available for just 23 of the 42 projects in the queue for approval. These projects alone would emit an average of 8.7 million tonnes of pollution every year in the 2030\u2019s. This is nearly equal to the pollution from all of Australia\u2019s domestic flights every year (more than 600,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These estimates do not take into account downstream emissions which are released when the coal and gas from these projects is burnt \u2013 largely overseas. For every tonne of climate pollution released in Australia, the coal and gas industry \u2018exported\u2019 12.8 tonnes of climate pollution in 2023*. Whether pollution is released in Australia or overseas, our environment suffers the same consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Climate Council analysis based on Climate Analytics 2024<\/a> and DCCEEW 2025<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mega-polluting projects up for approval<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The list of projects waiting for approval includes highly-polluting projects like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n