PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has published its greenhouse gas emissions guidance, following more than 20 weeks of consultation and almost 7 000 submissions from the community and industry.

The new guidelines reaffirmed the draft greenhouse gas emission guidelines released in December last year.

A key foundation of the guidance is the requirement that proponents of projects emitting large volumes of greenhouse gases would need to articulate and publish their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets over time, demonstrating their contribution to delivering net zero emissions by 2050.

EPA chairperson Dr Tom Hatton said feedback from the consultation had helped refine the guidance, including amending the definition of a greenhouse gas to be consistent with Commonwealth measures, and providing further guidance around the offsets that the EPA would recognise.

“Over the past year, the serious consequences of greenhouse gas emissions to our state and nation have become more real to many of us, but entirely in line with our scientific understanding of how greenhouse gas emissions can impact our climate and environment.

“The level of public interest and concern has grown, but so has the response from industry. Many of the companies operating or proposing to operate in Western Australia have recently made public commitments to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050.

“The EPA welcomes these initiatives and anticipates these commitments will be reflected in the emissions reductions targets and timetables for new proposals,” Hatton said.

“This guidance will help align the management of greenhouse gases in Western Australia with both the science that says we need to get to net zero by 2050 to avoid the most serious of consequences, and the international and state policy that has endorsed this conclusion.

“It is also intended that the guidance provides industry and community with certainty and a clear framework for the management of greenhouse gas emissions from future proposals.”

The EPA was forced to withdraw its original guidelines in March of last year, which included rules that all new projects that emitted more than 100 000 t/y of carbon dioxide, should offset those emissions, after facing severe backlash from both the industry and the state government.