Climate and coastal community groups came together this week to protest the use of carbon capture storage technology in the region by the gas industry.
Groups including Surfrider Foundation Australia, the Otway Climate Emergency Action Network, Extinction Rebellion, Surfers for Climate and Fridays for Future staged a protest outside the RACV Torquay Resort on Monday, where CO2CRC – a carbon capture and storage research group funded by industry and government – was holding its annual general meeting and symposium.
The groups said they had no issue with carbon capture and storage research when used for agriculture, but were opposed to its use by the gas industry.
Carbon capture and storage is a technology that involves capturing and storing greenhouse gas emissions, by injecting the captured greenhouse gases back into the ground, rather than releasing them into the atmosphere.
Surfrider Foundation Australia chairman Sean Doherty said the groups were concerned with the gas industry’s use of the technology, as the emissions captured on-site were only a fraction of the emissions generated when the gas was burned by consumers.
“The oil and gas industry is responsible for about 40 per cent of global emissions. About 10 per cent of that comes from producing the gas. The other 30 is released when their products are burned,” he said.
“Carbon capture and storage does nothing about that. When these companies talk about being carbon neutral, that doesn’t include the emissions when their product is burned.
“The only thing carbon capture and storage technology currently captures is taxpayer dollars.
“The promise of it is being used by the gas industry to justify massive expansion, which will ultimately see millions of tons of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere whether carbon capture and storage works or not.
“The prospect of the Great Ocean Road being further industrialised and gas rigs turning up off the Twelve Apostles has angered coastal communities right along this coast. At a time we should be reducing carbon emissions, Australia’s response is to turn one of its most recognisable tourist attractions into a gas field.”
Mr Doherty said Surfrider Foundation Australia was calling for an end to all new fossil fuel exploration along coasts and opposed carbon capture and storage being used to give licence to new oil and gas.
“The best way to put carbon in the ground is to leave it there in the first place,” he said.
CO2CRC was contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.
