Ms Robinson said that governments should assess “the way forward” in light of international developments and domestic politics, and that now is not the time to lose sight of the importance of natural gas in assisting the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we as a nation are serious about cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reduction, we must do the obvious – accelerate the shift to natural gas for generating electricity,” Ms Robinson said.

“Unfortunately, the market signals that are required to make this shift are simply not there.”

According to APPEA, electricity generated using natural gas emits 50-70 per cent fewer greenhouse gases than conventional coal-fired power stations, and when natural gas is used in place of coal to generate electricity in customer countries, 4.5-9 t of carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided for every tonne produced to export LNG. By 2030, the world will need 40 per cent more energy.

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“The climate change challenge has not gone away and Australia is still in need of an efficient and effective national policy that puts a price on carbon,” Ms Robinson said.

“In the absence of a national approach, the temptation of governments to pursue high-cost, uncoordinated, piecemeal measures to fill the policy void will be difficult to resist, but resist it we must.”

Ms Robinson said that a speech given by Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet, in which Mr Combet noted the challenges for reducing Australian emissions, could have mentioned that 180 MMt CO2-e in greenhouse gases could be displaced by increasing the use of natural gas in Australia and by growing Australian exports of LNG to the Asia-Pacific region.

“As Australia’s climate change policy evolves, the gas industry will continue to assess any approach against a common sense test,” Ms Robinson said. “That is, does it result in the expansion of cleaner energy sources including natural gas and the growth of Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas industry?”