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PERTH, Wednesday 22 October 2025 — A new report released today by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Springmount Advisory shows for the first time how Western Australia can slash emissions by 90% across four major sectors by 2050, and become a global renewable energy powerhouse, by rapidly scaling up investment in green energy and industry.  

Power Shift: WA’s Electrified Future provides the first comprehensive timeline for the phase out of fossil fuels, including gas, in the state, while transforming WA’s economy, lowering household power bills, and supporting the green jobs and industries of the future.

The report provides detailed policy level solutions to achieving these ambitions across key sectors including electricity, industry, transport and agriculture.

Crucially, the report reveals WA does not need to open any new gas fields to meet its energy needs, and can phase out gas as existing fields and plants reach end of life.

Key findings:

  • WA can take a massive share of Australia’s green future opportunity but it must act decisively to build industries at scale to compete.
  • With the right policy settings, the state can reduce emissions by 90% by 2050 across four key industries, growing its economy and playing a leading role in global efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5C. 
  • This transformation would require roughly only a third of the investment that has flowed to developing WA’s gas export facilities in recent decades ($74.3 billion over the next 25 years).
  • The final gas powered generator in Western Australia could close by 2046, with gas only required to supply 1% of WA’s electricity by 2035.

With the right policy levers, Western Australia can reduce emissions in line with 1.5C, by:

  • Increasing EV uptake by 3.8% on average each year to reach 99% of total vehicles being electric by 2049. 
  • Rolling out renewables at almost 10 times their current annual rate in the next four years. 

Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “For the first time, this report sets out a clear path to our green future. With our skilled workforce, industrial base and abundant wind and solar resources, Western Australia is in prime position to seize the opportunities of the clean energy transition, and become a global renewable energy powerhouse.

“But we need to act quickly and decisively. Our trading partners and the rest of the world are already moving away from fossil fuels and investing in the clean industries of the future — and Western Australia needs to move with it.

“The report definitively shows we don’t need new gas. By focusing investment in renewable energy, WA can maintain its economic security, while also delivering enormous benefits for our community — creating secure jobs, strengthening regional economies, and building a cleaner, more resilient future for the State.”

Tom Quinn, Managing Director at Springmount Advisory, said: “Western Australia is trailing the rest of Australia in its renewable energy rollout, meanwhile our export partners are rapidly reducing their reliance on coal and gas.

“With massive reductions in the cost of wind and solar power over the past decade, there is no reason why WA shouldn’t be charging ahead into the green energy future, and away from fossil fuels of the past.

“An ambitious strategy to diversify and decarbonise the state economy is the key to unlock future economic prosperity, attract new industries and drive down the cost of living.”

ENDS

For more information or interviews contact Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lucy.keller@greenpeace.org

‘A clear path to our green future’: Greenpeace report sets out roadmap for WA’s energy transition and phase out of gas

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Climate-Fueled Wildfires and Dust Storms Drove Up Air Pollution Around the World Last Year

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A new report shows air pollution threatens the majority of the world’s population, while information gaps increase the risks.

A new report on global air pollution shows that the majority of the world’s population breathes unhealthy air, and climate change is making the problem worse.

Climate-Fueled Wildfires and Dust Storms Drove Up Air Pollution Around the World Last Year

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Australia must not follow dystopian US-style data centre path of Big Tech overreach and emissions blow out

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SYDNEY, Monday 23 March 2026 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has labelled the Federal government’s new expectations for data centres and AI infrastructure released today as seriously inadequate, failing to address the massive impacts of the facilities on our energy systems and society, and enabling US-style Big Tech overreach and deregulation.

Greenpeace says the dizzying scale of new AI data centre development in Australia threatens to derail the energy transition by prolonging reliance on polluting fossil fuels, increasing electricity prices and consuming enormous quantities of water — all to power an industry which may be enabling socially harmful outcomes.

Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “The frenzied build out of AI data centres in Australia is breathtaking, and following a dangerous US-style path where Big Tech corporations have carte blanche to drain local energy and water, and build new, polluting gas and diesel-powered plants to fuel their operations.

“Australia is following the US down the same dystopian path of unregulated AI data centre expansion and overreach by Big Tech corporations that are at best driving significant climate and environmental harm and at worst, generating illegal explicit images or supporting the US military to bomb civilians in Iran.

“These billionaire-run companies like Amazon, Open AI, Meta have time and again shown themselves to be morally impaired, with not even the best interests of humanity, let alone Australians, at the core of their decisions. Expecting them to just do the right thing because we ask nicely is baffling.

“We’re also seeing vested-interest lobby groups like the newly formed Data Centres Australia aggressively pushing to cut regulations that would protect Australians from the climate, environmental and social impacts of data centres.

“Last year, the Albanese government abandoned its own recommended AI guardrails when it announced its National AI Plan — a move applauded by these lobby groups.

“The gas lobby has also now seized on data centre growth to justify extracting more gas, just as the world needs to rapidly phase out fossil fuels for energy security and to tackle the climate crisis.

“We have a short and closing window to choose a different path in Australia — without strong guardrails, we risk replicating the US pattern where Big Tech corporations make huge profits at the expense of locals. The government must not roll out the red carpet to these corporations without adequate, legislated protections and scrutiny — not just ‘nice-to-haves’.”

ENDS

Media contact:

Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

Australia must not follow dystopian US-style data centre path of Big Tech overreach and emissions blow out

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Climate Change

Courts’ Fight Over ‘Cop City’ Protests Raises Questions About Terrorism Laws and Environmental Activism 

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A years-long legal fight tied to protests over Atlanta’s Public Safety Training Center could shape how states wield terrorism laws against environmental protest movements.

ATLANTA—On a recent March morning, a large monitor at the front of a DeKalb County courtroom flickered to life as Superior Court Judge David B. Irwin appeared over Zoom. The hearing—with attorneys and out-of-state defendants joining remotely—centered on a question with national implications: Can activists who protested Atlanta’s controversial police training center be prosecuted as domestic terrorists?

Courts’ Fight Over ‘Cop City’ Protests Raises Questions About Terrorism Laws and Environmental Activism 

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