The Australian government increases exploration permits to fund 2.5GW of renewables

Australia plans to spend approximately $3.7 billion on offshore gas exploration over the next six years. according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), this should be enough to develop 2.5GW of renewables capacity and generate about 5,000 new jobs. The IEEFA report, which was released couple of days ago, shows how “the Australian government has given the green light to oil and gas giants” to spend vast sums of money on “risky offshore exploration activities despite industry-low success rates and the global energy transition”. Milad Mousavian of IEEFA, said the Australian government has ignored warnings by the International Energy Agency that no new oil and gas projects should go-ahead in order to reach net zero by 2050. Australia surpassed Qatar as the largest LNG exporter in the world in 2019, exporting 77.5 million tonnes with around 70% supplied by offshore gas.