The Albanese government has approved an extension to 2070 of one of the world\u2019s biggest gas export projects, saying it has agreed on conditions to protect more than 1 million pieces of ancient world heritage-listed Indigenous rock art that sit nearby.<\/p>\n
Climate campaigners have described Woodside\u2019s North West Shelf extension as a \u201ccarbon bomb\u201d incompatible with global climate goals. The approval was met with fury from conservation groups and the Greens on Friday, who said it was a \u201cbetrayal\u201d of Australians who wanted climate action.<\/p>\n
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, proposed an approval for the Western Australian project<\/a> in May but his department had since been in talks with Woodside about conditions relating to nitrous oxide emissions. The detail of those conditions was not made public at the time.<\/p>\n The extension allows Woodside to keep operating its Karratha plant, which processes and liquifies gas for export, beyond 2030 and to 2070.<\/p>\n Confirming the approval, Watt said he had imposed 48 conditions on Woodside that related to monitoring and restricting industrial emissions, including nitrous oxide, that could damage the rock art.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident the conditions we have set are the right ones to protect jobs and economic opportunities and to protect the rock art,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n He said emissions of gases including nitrous oxides and sulphur dioxide would be capped and then reduced. Nitrogen oxide emissions would need to fall by 60% by 2030 and 90% by 2061, with a similar target for sulphur oxide gases.<\/p>\n The Karratha plant neighbours the Murujuga Indigenous rock art complex \u2013 a landscape of more than 1 million petroglyphs dating back 50,000 years, including the oldest known image of a human face.<\/p>\n Critics contest the rock art is being damaged by emissions from the gas plant, but scientists for a state government-backed monitoring program have mostly dismissed those concerns.<\/p>\n The Murujuga complex was described by UN advisers as a \u201cmanifestation of creative genius, inscribed in the landscape since deep time\u201d when it was given world heritage status in July<\/a> after a decades-long campaign by traditional owners.<\/p>\n An aerial view of part of the Murujuga cultural area, where more than 1 million petroglyphs dating back 50,000 years can be found. Photograph: D. Fowler\/Fuzz Digital<\/p>\n The federal government led a lobbying effort to overturn recommendations by UN advisers that the nomination should have been sent back to Australia until industrial emissions were stopped.<\/p>\n The minister on Friday also granted a \u201cpartial\u201d protection of the site under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, after an application more than three years ago from traditional owner and Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper, of the Save our Songlines group.<\/p>\n Cooper asked the environment minister almost four years ago to make a declaration to protect the site<\/a> under section 10 of the act. To make a declaration, the minister must be satisfied that the area is significant to Aboriginal people and is \u201cunder threat of injury or desecration\u201d.<\/p>\n The declaration says objects in the protected area cannot be moved, damaged, defaced or disturbed, but this excluded any damage from \u201cindustrial gaseous emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n Cooper said the decision to extend the project will \u201chang around Albanese\u2019s neck for the remainder of his leadership\u201d. In a statement released through Save Our Songlines, she said she felt the s.10 decision had been \u201crushed\u201d out to coincide with the extension, and was \u201ca betrayal of Aboriginal people\u2026 a betrayal of all Australians\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just destroying Murujuga country, but will impact communities all around the world. It is a shameful act and a shameful decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cooper said she was seeking further legal advice.<\/p>\n Peter Hicks is the chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, a governing body made up of five language groups \u2013the Ngarluma, Yaburara, Mardudhunera (Mardathoonera), Yindjibarndi, and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo peoples \u2013 who act as custodians after the Yaburara people, the artists and traditional owners of Murujuga, were killed or driven off the land in the 1800s. Hicks said the declaration added \u201ca further layer of protection to an area of such great significance to our people\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Labor \u2018has betrayed Australians\u2019 on climate, critics say<\/p>\n Conservation groups have described the North West Shelf project as the most polluting project in the southern hemisphere, with estimates of total emissions above 4bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent.<\/p>\n Gavan McFadzean, climate program manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), said it \u201cbeggars belief that the Albanese government would choose to detonate this carbon bomb\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this decision, prime minister Albanese has betrayed Australians who voted for him, believing he was serious about acting on climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n