Darwin's 'sustainable' Middle Arm project reveals Australia's huge climate policy gamble

• Protesters rallied at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, railing against Darwin’s controversial Middle Arm venture which critics say would benefit the gas industry.
• The project has been thrust into the headlines of late.
• Fyles describes Middle Arm as a “sustainable development precinct”.
• In effect, the Middle Arm project, and others like it, are grand experiments with our climate.

The ‘circular’ economy

• The strategy doesn’t seek to reach net-zero simply by pumping less carbon into the atmosphere – for example, by deploying renewable energy.
• It also involves activities that remove, capture, store or use carbon, therefore “offsetting” or cancelling out emissions from other sources.
• Proponents of the strategy characterise it as a simple matter of inputs (emissions) and outputs (offsets) cancelling each other out.
• largely powered by renewables, master-planned to achieve a circular economy approach of sustainable and responsible production and will use technology to achieve low-to-zero emissions.

‘Sustainable’ claims called into question

• For example, internal government documents make clear the precinct is “seen as a key enabler” of the gas industry.
• One confirmed future tenant will be Tamboran Resources, which plans to frack and drill for gas in the Beetaloo Basin.
• Announcing the project in 2021, the NT government called it a “a game-changer”.
• Claims that Middle Arm would substantially be powered by renewable energy are also in doubt.

Offsets won’t save us, either

• And in 2021, the then Coalition government released a climate plan in which more than half the carbon savings would be achieved via carbon offsets, as well as unspecified “technology breakthroughs”.
• Carbon offsets are used by polluters to compensate for their emissions.
• Carbon offsets are contentious because they allow companies to keep pumping out carbon.

Looking ahead

• Meanwhile, the world has just experienced its hottest month on record.
• At a time like this, we must focus on achieving genuine emissions reductions, rather than playing risky games with our climate.