Climate investment agitators at Market Forces have again taken aim at oil and gas miner Woodside with a missive on Monday that challenges its narrative that gas can help swing to clean energy in Asia.
The organisation said that despite its proclamations in sustainability reports, Woodside had invested $40 billion in oil and gas exploration since 2020 and that this would delay the transition.
“Research has consistently found that increasing liquefied natural gas supply to Asia is more likely to undermine the clean energy transition by slowing the uptake of renewable energy, rather than displacing coal,” said Brett Morgan, senior analyst and campaigner with the activist group.
“After a world record vote against its climate plan in 2024, Woodside has failed to heed shareholder concerns about its dangerous oil and gas growth strategy, which is undermining the clean energy transition,” Morgan said.
“Investors have been demanding greater climate action from Woodside for years and will continue until the company begins playing a constructive role in the transition to clean energy.”
A major problem for fossil fuel adherents is that gas will play an increasingly “small and declining role in the clean energy transition”.
However, gas was more likely to displace renewable energy uptake in Asia than coal use.
Data already published that supported the Market Forces perspective included:
- A CSIRO report commissioned by Woodside found that “…increasing Australian gas supply could prolong coal, displace renewables and increase emissions in Asia without a global carbon price.”
- A United States Department of Energy (DOE) report found: “Another 25 per cent of the increase in US LNG exports relative to existing and FID levels displaces renewables in the ROW [rest of world], which puts upward pressure on global GHG emissions.” The DOE’s modelled increase in US LNG exports found that US LNG would displace almost double the amount of renewable energy (25 per cent) than coal (13 per cent) in the rest of the world.
- A Deloitte report commissioned by the Western Australian government found that natural gas could “crowd out investments in renewable technologies or delay the broader adoption of zero emission energy systems.”
- A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that in China, LNG will play “a minimal role in supporting the clean energy transition in the largest coal-consuming sectors”. “The growth of renewables generation, rather than gas or LNG, has eroded the share of coal generation in the country’s power mix.”