Question On Notice No. 2489 asked in the Legislative Council on 18 September 2019 by Hon Robin Chapple
Question Directed to the: Minister for Regional Development representing the Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
On Thursday, 22 August 2019 the Perth Climate Action Team held the Burning Globe Awards for the “2019 WA Polluter award” and found that Chevron were the largest polluter in this State. This data was gathered from the “Safeguard facility reported emissions 2017–18”. This prompts me to ask, what are the Western Australian current CO2e emissions, as understood by the Minister's Department, emanating from the corporations and facilities below:
(a) Chevron as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(b) Woodside Energy as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(c) Apache as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(d) BHP Iron Ore as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(e) BHP Alumina as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(f) BHP Petroleum as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(g) Rio Tinto as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(h) Fortescue Metals Group as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(i) Westfarmers Ltd as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(j) Yara as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(k) Roy Hill Holdings as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(l) Alcoa of Australia Ltd as a corporation operating in Western Australia;
(m) the operations of the Chevron facilities on Barrow Island:
(i) Gorgon Project; and
(ii) WA Oil Operations;
(n) the operations of the Chevron Wheatstone (LNG) hub;
(o) the operations of the North West Shelf JV project hub;
(p) the operations of the Yara Fertiliser plant;
(q) the operations of the Yara Technical Ammonia plant;
(r) in relation to (a) - (q), if the Minister cannot provide the information, why not; and
(s) in relation to (a) - (q), if yes:
(i) where is that data held or sourced from; and
(ii) when was that data provided?
Answered on 23 October 2019
(a) – (q) The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) receives emissions reporting for petroleum activities when a company submits an annual environment report and an annual assessment report. Each of these reports only requires a company to report specifically on the petroleum activity that has been approved, not as a whole project, or the corporation as a whole.
The CO2-e emissions of the listed corporations and facilities are reported to the Clean Energy Regulator under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Cth) (NGER Act), which provides a single national framework for disseminating company information; and for corporations to report annually on greenhouse gas emissions, energy production, energy consumption and other information specified under NGER legislation.
(r) The reports submitted to DMIRS are confidential when submitted to DMIRS. Companies may choose to make these annual reports publicly available on their websites however, there is no requirement to do so.
The Clean Energy Regulator publishes information about registered corporations as well as information about facilities covered by the Australian Government’s Safeguard Mechanism, which applies to facilities with direct (scope 1) emissions over 100 000 tonnes CO2-e per annum. The Safeguard facility emissions reported for 2017-18 is available from the Clean Energy Regulator and can be accessed through its website.
(s) (i) – (ii) Not applicable