The Greens condemn Labor for abandoning its environmental agenda and prioritising the Sea Dumping Amendment Bill – legislation specifically designed to facilitate dirty fossil fuel projects by falsely legitimising carbon capture and storage (CSS) as a commercially viable and effective climate solution.
It comes as the Climate Council today releases its first oceans report, urging the Government to show commitment to protecting our precious ocean, starting with the urgent phase out of coal, oil and gas.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
“Burying carbon emissions in geological formations beneath the seabed hasn’t worked at scale anywhere in the world – it is a fallacy.
“CCS is a unicorn technology that the Sea Dumping Bill attempts to legitimise while giving political cover to rip open new fossil fuel projects.
“By passing this sham of a Bill, Labor will prove it is no different to the Coalition when it comes to the despicable steps it is willing to take to satisfy the fossil fuel industry.
“The Climate Council today released its first oceans report, which urges the Government to show commitment to protecting our precious ocean starting with the urgent phase out of coal, oil and gas.
“Humans have largely been protected from the worst of climate change because more than 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the ocean – but this sacrifice is not without cost.
“Our oceans are at breaking point yet Labor is content with letting urgent reforms to the EPBC Act lay dormant while the needs of the fossil fuel industry leap to the front of the government’s legislative queue.
“The Sea Dumping Bill is the strongest indication yet from the Albanese Government that it is content with abandoning its environmental agenda, and is shamelessly and indefensibly captured by the fossil fuel industry.”
