As the world struggles to contain the climate emergency, Australia approves a fossil gas extraction project that risks wiping out decades of progress. This is the Scarborough project, linked to the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and according to a new international study it will release over 876 million tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere over its 31-year operational life.
An enormity that comes into stark contrast with global commitments to reduce emissions and with the promises made by the Australian government itself on the ecological transition.
It is not a “drop in the ocean”, as many try to downplay: it is a flood of greenhouse gases that will have measurable effects on global warming, people’s health and ecosystems.
A project that contradicts every climate objective
The alarm was raised by a group of scientists fromAustralian National Universityin collaboration with researchers from Oxford, James Cook Universityand other international institutes.
Using a method called Transient Climate Response to Cumulative CO₂ Emissions (TCRE), scientists calculated that the Scarborough project — with its combined emissions from production and consumption — could alone contribute to an average global temperature increase of 0.00039°C.
It may seem like a tiny figure, but it’s not at all: according to researchers, that increase will lead to over half a million more people exposed to extreme heat waves, hundreds more heat-related deaths, 350,000 people forced to live outside the “human climatic niche” and the loss of approximately 16 million coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef.
An announced disaster, which contradicts every international commitment to reducing emissions and climate adaptation.
When profit tramples the well-being of the planet
The paradox is clear: as the world faces fires, droughts, hurricanes and climate-related food crises, we continue to invest in new fossil infrastructure. The consequences of the Scarborough project will not be limited to Australia: its contribution to global warming will be global, and everyone will pay – people, animals, forests and oceans.
Science has been saying it for years: every ton of CO₂ counts and each new fossil project pushes us closer to a point of no return, where the effects of global warming will become irreversible.
We are one step away from the climate abyss – the authors conclude – and decisions like this only accelerate the fall.
