Greens name and shame our biggest carbon emitters

MEDIA RELEASE

Wed, 27/02/2013

 

The Greens have today named and shamed the state’s biggest carbon emitters in a bid to try to tackle WA’s growing reputation as one of the biggest per capita polluters on the planet.
 
Greens MLC Robin Chapple said Woodside topped the list of the state’s worst greenhouse gas emitters pushing out more than 12 M tonnes a year from its Burrup development, the equivalent of the annual combined carbon emissions of around 4 million cars.

Next on the list was Verve Energy producing 7.9Mt followed by Alcoa on 4.3Mt and BHP (Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd) on 3.7Mt.

Together the state’s top four carbon polluters were producing in excess of 27M tonnes of C02 a year. Mr Chapple said new developments already in the pipeline, including Woodside’s Browse basin LNG, were expected to more than double the state’s current emissions within a decade.

“When we should be constraining the growth of carbon emissions and making clear plans for a clean economy we are instead charging headlong into a dirty future with the doubling of our emissions,” Mr Chapple said.

“We have a moral obligation to help solve global warming by limiting emissions but our government is paying lip service to this obligation.

“The Government has no plan to curb emissions or rein in big polluters and it doesn’t even consider emissions when granting approvals to industry.

“The Greens hope that by making public the extent of the pollution generated by some of our major companies they will act more like good corporate citizens and ensure they cut their own carbon emissions.

“Naming and shaming companies will give shareholders valuable information about the state of a company and its environmental credentials.”

Mr Chapple said the Greens would publish a list of the worst polluters online and would make sure that when companies did the right thing and cut back their emissions they were acknowledged for their efforts.

“We hope that by making a company’s carbon emissions more transparent it will help bring change and encourage big polluters to do more about reducing their carbon footprint.”

List of top four emitters 2013-01-30 TOP4 emitters.pdf
Studies: 
GHG Estimates WA 2012 Final.pdf
Carbon Emissions Inventory Major Resource Projects – AGEIS 2012 data.pdf

 

For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255