Scarborough Project: Contribution to global emissions (draft)

MYTH

Woodside is undermining a stable climate future by pursuing new oil and gas projects.

FACT

The Scarborough project will create Scope 1 GHG emissions and there will be Scope 3 emissions associated with onshore processing of Scarborough gas. There will also be Scope 3 GHG emissions from customer use associated with the project. 

If the introduction of Scarborough LNG into the global energy market serves to reduce GHG emissions elsewhere, then the full volume of GHG emissions associated with the project may not be additive to global GHG concentrations. However, this is uncertain and not feasible to measure accurately. 

To facilitate a comparison against carbon budgets, a hypothetical scenario where GHG emissions associated with the Scarborough project are treated as entirely additive is considered. This scenario is not expected to eventuate due to the reasons described above.

The estimated Scarborough GHG emissions over the expected life of the development are compared with remaining carbon budgets expected to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement below. Additionally, no allowance is given for future mitigation of GHG emissions associated with the project (such as through future abatement opportunities or future policy requirements), or changes to the carbon budgets which are known to be estimates only.

Emissions associated with onshore processing of Scarborough gas will also be subject to GHG frameworks which are expected to reduce the estimate from the gross figure such as the Federal SGM.