Scarborough is one of the dirtiest new fossil fuel projects currently planned in Australia. It will release as much pollution as 20,000 flights around the world every day, for the next 25 years. If the world is going to avoid catastrophic climate change, new gas mining projects like Scarborough can’t go ahead. Scarborough can be stopped. But we need you to Say NO now! We’re building on the work of activists around the world who have stood up to big business and big polluters and demanded an end to accelerating climate change.
In November 2021, Woodside approved a final investment decision (FID) on the Scarborough offshore gas mine. FID is the point in the project planning process when the decision to make major financial commitments is taken. But the campaign to Say NO to Scarborough Gas is only just getting started. Woodside has made FID without the approvals needed for Scarborough to proceed, without the gas contracts needed to support it, and after repeated delays, cost blow outs, and job cuts. On top of all of this, Woodside is currently facing two meaningful legal challenges, launched by the Conservation Council of Western Australia, in the Supreme Court. We will continue to hold Woodside to account on the streets, in Boardrooms, with investors and in court until Scarborough is stopped.
The company involved: Woodside has made ‘aspirational’ targets to achieve net-zero by 2050, while at the same time investing in Australia’s most dangerous proposed gas development. The most recent IPCC Report highlights just how urgent it is to act now. One of Australia’s biggest polluters and political donors. Woodside has a track record of not cleaning up after themselves leaving Australian taxpayers to foot the bill. Scarborough will produce levels of pollution which are equivalent to 15 coal-fired power stations concentrated in one of the most culturally and environmentally important areas of WA.
Environmental disaster – Financial risk: Scarborough is a high stakes gamble for Woodside. The development is currently subject to a high profile legal challenge in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Woodside calls this ‘a minor administrative matter’ and is hiding the truth from its investors. Woodside will blast and dredge millions of cubic metres of seabed; hammer giant concrete piles into the ocean floor; and dump millions of tonnes of dredge sea bed spoil across pristine marine habitat for turtles, humpback whales, dolphins, and dugongs. Murujuga is a sacred place for Aboriginal people. Acid gas and acid rain from Woodside’s Scarborough development will damage globally significant rock art – much of which dates back more than 40,000 years.