Climate Crisis: Weeks After COP26 Called For Fossil Fuel Extraction To Stop, Australia Green Lights Most Polluting Project In Memory

You could not make it up. One of the absolutes which COP26 called for in order to achieve the Paris agreement global warming targets was a halt on the exploitation of new fossil fuel reserves. The seats aren't even cold in the conference rooms and Australian companies Woodside and BHP, along with ally PM Scott Morrison have committed to a new fossil fuel project off the coast of Western Australia which represented the 'most polluting fossil fuel development in recent memory according to the Conservation Council of WA.

That claim is based on emissions of 1.6bn tonnes of greenhouse gases across the lifetime of the natural gas field.

Australia's journey to net zero by 2050 has started with a massive step in the wrong direction. It has been obvious for a while they the country's current political leadership is paying nothing more than lip service to its climate commitments - what wasn't so obvious, but is now, is just how much it will allow companies to flagrantly disregard the climate in the search for profit.