WHEN: THURSDAY – APRIL 20, 2017 at 10:30AM AEST

WHERE: The Senate Courtyard, Parliament House, Canberra

WHAT: Energy sector experts will unveil the Climate Council’s first national gas report ‘Pollution and Price: The Cost of Investing in Gas’, in Canberra on Thursday, showing Australia’s gas prices are locked-in and will continue to skyrocket, while pollution levels also soar.

EXPERT TALENT:
Climate Councillor Professor Will Steffen, climate scientist
Climate Councillor Greg Bourne, Former President of BP Australasia
Climate Councillor Andrew Stock, energy sector veteran of 40+ years

Key Findings & Recommendations include:

• Australia’s energy system is ageing, inefficient and polluting and generation capacity will need to be replaced.
• Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports are pushing up the price of gas power at the expense of Australian households and business because domestic gas prices are now inextricably linked to world market prices for oil. Gas prices will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.
• Expanding gas for power would require a massive expansion of unconventional gas, including tens of thousands of new coal seam gas wells.
• Unconventional gas expansion is costly due to the need to source more and more uneconomic sources of gas and community opposition.
• New renewable energy is cost competitive with new gas today. The cost of renewable power and storage, particularly solar, wind and batteries, continues to fall and has no associated
 fuel costs.
• Tackling climate change and protecting Australia from worsening climate impacts requires our energy system to reach net zero emissions before 2050.
• Reliance on gas power, as well as coal, in Australia must be rapidly and deeply reduced if we are to fulfil our commitment to limit global temperature below 2°C.

For advanced copies of the report and media release please contact Media Advisor Alexia Boland on 0430 511 068.