Published

2 months ago

March 30, 2026

Alice Rush

Greenpeace activists have been arrested after taking action at a major gas conference this morning in Sydney.

Earlier today, brave activists disrupted the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, dropping a banner with a simple message: Gas Execs Profit. We Pay The Price.

They were also holding banners calling to Tax Gas Profits, making it clear that Australians have had enough.

Following the peaceful protest, two activists were arrested by police.

Watch and share the video to see what’s happening.

Watch & Share the video

Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists have disrupted the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference in Sydney, dropping a 3-metre-long banner in the main foyer outside the conference room saying, ‘Gas Execs Profit, We Pay The Price’. © Greenpeace

Why this matters

Gas corporations are raking in billions in profit from global crises – from Ukraine to Iran – while everyday Australians are left paying the price with higher energy bills and climate damage.

At the same time, these companies continue to avoid paying their fair share of tax.

That’s why Greenpeace activists took action.

A message from the activists

Alex Saurin, Greenpeace activist who dropped the banner, said:

“It feels powerful to take a stand against these gas corporations that have been trampling over the Australian people and our environment for far too long.

Gas giants like ExxonMobil and Santos have spent years blocking renewable energy and dodging fair taxes to protect their record profits. While families struggle to pay the bills and the climate crisis accelerates, these companies continue to demand free right to do whatever they want.

It is beyond time for our leaders to shake off the gas industry’s grip and start taxing these corporations fairly while clearing the path for the renewable energy we desperately need. They need to start making decisions for our people and our planet – not just for us now, but for the generations to come.”

These are ordinary people taking extraordinary action, standing up to an industry that continues to put profits ahead of people and the planet.

Watch & Share the video

Standing up to Big Gas

Today’s arrests are a reminder of what it takes to challenge this industry.

As Greenpeace Campaigner, Solaye Snider, said:

“Gas corporations in Australia are ripping us off. From Ukraine to Iran, these corporations treat global conflict as an opportunity to line their pockets and drill for more gas – but while gas executives profit, we pay the price with more climate pollution, more environmental destruction, and soaring bills for Australian households.

“It’s in Australia’s interest to unhook from volatile, polluting and expensive sources of energy like gas. The fastest path to cheaper power bills and a safer climate is clear: start taxing gas exports properly and speed up the transition toward homegrown renewable energy.

“As long as we are dependent on fossil fuels like gas, our electricity bills and our climate are at the mercy of global instability and greedy corporations who put their profits over people and planet.”

What needs to happen now

Gas is expensive. It’s volatile. And it ties our energy system to global instability. But there is a better way.

The government is already considering introducing a tax on gas corporations before the May budget – now we need to make sure they follow through.

That’s an important first step, but it’s just the beginning.

Renewable energy is already cheaper, more reliable, and made right here in Australia. It’s the fastest path to lower bills, real energy security and a safer climate.

To invest in a better future, we need to:

properly tax gas corporations and their exports,
stop expanding gas, and
speed up the transition to homegrown renewable energy.

Watch & Share the video

This is just the beginning

This action, and the arrests that followed, are part of a growing movement to stand up to Big Gas and challenge the power it holds over our government and society. The Federal Government has a role to play – starting by taxing gas corporations properly and then accelerating the transition to homegrown renewable energy.

Together, we can show just how much support there is for change, and make it impossible for decision-makers to ignore.

What you can do

BREAKING: Greenpeace activists arrested after standing up to Big Gas in Sydney

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Alice Rush

Climate Change

Analysis: UK no longer top UN Green Climate Fund donor after latest aid cut

Published

20 hours ago

May 15, 2026

Alice Rush

The UK is no longer the top contributor to the UN’s flagship Green Climate Fund (GCF), after the government announced that it only intends to honour half of its most recent pledge.

Amid wider cuts to its climate aid for developing countries, the UK informed the GCF in May that it will reduce its commitment for the 2024-27 period to £815m ($1.1bn).

In doing so, the Labour government is drastically cutting a Conservative pledge of £1.62bn ($2.16bn), hailed by former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government as “the biggest single funding commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change”.

This “record” pledge also meant the UK became the top GCF funder, after the Trump administration withdrew $4bn in pledged US funds in 2025.

Now, the UK follows the US in becoming the second major donor to cancel substantial funding, leaving aid experts concerned that other developed countries will follow suit.

As the chart below shows, the UK’s total past and promised contributions to the GCF have now dropped below those of Germany, France and Japan.

GCF pledges by top 10 donors. Dark bars indicate pledges from the initial resource mobilisation in 2014 and the first replenishment round in 2019, while light blue bars indicate pledges from the second replenishment round in 2023. Source: NRDC GCF pledge tracker.

The GCF is the largest dedicated UN climate fund and is seen as a vital way of raising grant-based climate finance for developing countries. It oversees more than $20bn worth of funding across 354 projects and programmes.

Developed countries, such as the UK, are obliged under the Paris Agreement to provide climate finance. One of the main ways to do this is through specialised climate funds, such as the GCF.

However, despite countries committing to increase their climate finance over time, progress in scaling up GCF contributions between funding rounds has been gradual.

With its now-revoked £1.62bn pledge in 2023, the UK was among the donors that had increased its GCF pledging compared with the previous 2019 funding round.

The latest reduction means the UK will now provide around 45% less funding than it did during the 2019 round. This is the biggest reduction between rounds by any major donor, apart from the US.

In an email to the GCF board, reported by the Financial Times, the fund’s executive director Mafalda Duarte said the UK’s actions were “expected to have a material impact on the delivery” of the fund’s projects.

According to the newspaper, Duarte noted that the move came as the UK cuts its overall aid budget in order to “invest more in addressing growing security threats”.

In March, the UK government announced plans to spend “around £6bn” of its aid budget on climate projects in developing countries over the next three years.

Carbon Brief analysis suggests that this spending amounts to roughly halving the UK’s annual climate finance, when accounting changes and inflation are factored in.

The post Analysis: UK no longer top UN Green Climate Fund donor after latest aid cut appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Analysis: UK no longer top UN Green Climate Fund donor after latest aid cut

Climate Change

Federal Budget must give Aussies a ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’: Greenpeace

Published

21 hours ago

May 15, 2026

Alice Rush

SYDNEY, Tuesday 12 May 2026 — Ahead of tonight’s Federal Budget, the following statement can be attributed to David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific:

“As the Albanese government hands down the budget, it has an obligation to both look after households today, and to set Australians up for a flourishing future.

“The government has an opportunity to give Aussies a fair shake of the sauce bottle by taxing gas corporations fairly, accelerating the clean, affordable renewable solutions we already have, backing its own nature law reforms with appropriate funding and by protecting our oceans, forests and climate from polluting gas projects.

“The massive swell for fairly taxing gas corporations shows the public mood has permanently shifted; most Australians rightly do not accept that gas corporations like Woodside and Santos should make obscene war profits, while everyday people face soaring bills, and natural wonders like Scott Reef are threatened by reckless gas drilling projects.

“The global energy shock has exposed the dangers of our dependence on coal, oil and gas, and made clear that our future security and prosperity is in clean, affordable and homegrown wind and solar power.

“This must be a budget to benefit Australians, not gas corporations.”

Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s 2026 Federal Budget expectations can be found here.

–ENDS–

Notes:

Greenpeace has spokespeople available for interview before and after the budget announcement, including experts who can speak on Australia’s climate and emissions, the gas tax, Woodside’s Browse project, Labor’s new nature law, and our renewable future.

Media contact:

Kimberley Bernard on +61407 581 404 or kbenard@greenpeace.org

Federal Budget must give Aussies a ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’: Greenpeace

Climate Change

‘A new low’: Greenpeace responds to Woodside’s flawed emissions reduction and renewables modelling

Published

21 hours ago

May 15, 2026

Alice Rush

PERTH, Tuesday 12 May 2026 — In response to Woodside’s Browse economic modelling released yesterday, the following comments can be attributed to WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Geoff Bice:

“Greenpeace has analysed Woodside’s report on the polluting Browse gas project against independent modelling of WA’s energy system and emissions, and found glaring holes in the case made for the project.

“Woodside has reached a new low by modelling WA’s emissions reduction and energy transition pathway based on wildly expensive and risky decarbonisation options simply to justify its reckless Browse development at Scott Reef, initially rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority on environmental grounds.

“The WA Government cannot allow climate policy to be directed by climate vandals like Woodside. The clearest way to get WA’s emissions down is by setting clear emission reduction targets, which Greenpeace continues to call for.”

Key points from Greenpeace’s analysis of Woodside’s modelling follow:

Gas is the most expensive form of available electricity generation, according to the CSIRO; IEEFA also found that Browse gas would be about four times higher than the current average production cost of domestic gas in WA.
Direct air capture (DAC): The model assumes WA will be able to capture 6.9Mt of CO₂/year by 2050. Worldwide, the current total volumes captured are 0.01 Mt CO₂/year. DAC is currently priced at a minimum of $USD-400/tonne with many estimates ranging higher. Even reduced to $200/tonne, the cost per year of the volumes modelled becomes a staggering $1.38 billion, or $34.5 billion by 2050.
Carbon dumping, or carbon capture and storage (CCS): The model requires 40 times the amount of sequestration that occurred last year at WA’s only CCS operation on Barrow Island (32.4Mt compared to 1.3Mt). Barrow Island CCS has consistently failed to meet requirements and last year alone cost $344m (at 265 AU$/tCO₂). At those prices the Woodside modelling results in a cost per year by 2050 to be $8.6 billion.
Woodside’s Pluto gas facility has been supplying less than 4% to the WA market, far short of the 15% required under the WA domestic gas reservation policy.
Woodside includes $1.6 billion payable via the Offshore Petroleum Levy. The Levy was implemented to offset offshore decommissioning costs to the taxpayer but is set to expire in 2030 — 3 years before the Browse field is proposed to come online.