Australia’s primary policy to address industrial greenhouse gas emissions is the Safeguard Mechanism. The policy covers facilities that emit over 100,000 tonnes of CO2e- per year and was recently amended with new features including:

• All facilities to reduce net emissions by 4.9% per year to 2030, and to be at net zero emissions by 2050.
• A “hard cap” on gross emissions.
• New export gas developments must have zero net reservoir emissions from commencement.
• A review of Human Induced Regeneration offsets (HIR), one of the largest offsets methods in Australia.

These changes will have particular impact on the Santos Barossa project: a $5.2 billion offshore gas development located north of Darwin in the Timor Sea. The project involves a new floating production facility, underwater wells, and a pipeline connection to the existing Darwin LNG export facility. Barossa is possibly Australia’s most carbon intensive gas development due to the very high CO2 content in the Barossa field.