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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

Key developments

The road to COP28

PROGRESS ON PLEDGES: Climate Home News examined the progress towards the climate pledges made at COP26 in Glasgow two years ago. Nearly 50 additional countries have signed a pledge to reduce their methane emissions by 30% by 2030, bringing the total to 150 countries. However, these countries only constitute half of global methane emissions and “under current trajectories, total human-made methane emissions could rise by up to 13%” over 2020-30. Another major pledge in Glasgow was the forest pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, signed by more than 140 countries. Countries “remain off track to reach the goal of the Glasgow pledge”, Climate Home News wrote. In 2022, tree loss was 21% higher than the required level to achieve zero deforestation in seven years, according to an assessment carried out by several non-governmental organisations.

DECARBONISING FOOD: Ahead of COP28, the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and Dalberg Advisors, a global consultancy focused on sustainability, published two reports looking at the links between food systems and fossil fuels. The Alliance called on stakeholders from the food and energy industries to collaborate to break the bond between the food sector and fossil fuels and transform the food sector to a more sustainable one that is in line with the Paris Agreement. One of the reports laid out the relationships between food and energy systems and provided recommendations to decarbonise the food sector. For example, it said, food producers could start reducing their use of fossil-fuel-based agrochemicals and move to agroecological and regenerative systems.

FOOD FOCUS: A group of more than 80 organisations and individuals, including Unilever, WWF and Columbia Climate School, issued a joint open letter addressed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to demand that food systems be at the centre of negotiations at COP28, reported the UK trade publication Food Manufacture. The organisations pointed out that joint action is required to solve climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity. The signatories also asked that National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions include food systems. The letter argued that doing so will encourage countries to create national policies to reduce food waste and move to more sustainable and healthy diets.

Hidden costs of food systems

HIDDEN FIGURES: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that the “hidden costs” of food systems amount to “at least” $10tn per year, or nearly 10% of total global GDP. The latest edition of its annual State of Food and Agriculture report focused on “true-cost accounting” – tallying up the environmental, health and social costs and benefits of the world’s food systems. According to the FAO, unsustainable food systems are contributing to “climate change, natural resource degradation and the unaffordability of healthy diets”. Based on an assessment of more than 150 countries’ food systems, the report found “that low-income countries bear the highest burden of the hidden costs of agrifood systems relative to national income” – up to one-quarter of their GDP, as compared to just 12% for middle-income countries and less than 8% for high-income countries. 

ENVIRONMENTAL UNDERESTIMATE: Of the total sum, more than 70% of the hidden costs are “driven by unhealthy diets”, leading to “non-communicable diseases and causing labour productivity losses”, the FAO wrote in a press release, adding that the costs of these health impacts primarily affected higher-income countries. About 20% of the costs are environmental: greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen emissions, land-use change and water use. The press release noted that the scale of environmental costs “is probably underestimated due to data limitations”. FAO director-general Qu Dongyu said: “The future of our agrifood systems hinges on our willingness to appreciate all food producers, big or small, to acknowledge these true costs and understand how we all contribute to them and what actions we need to take.” Governments should factor in these true costs “to transform agrifood systems”, the FAO added. Next year’s report will also focus on true-cost accounting, the FAO said.

INTERCONNECTED COSTS: Dr David Laborde, head of agrifood economics at the FAO, told Wired: “With this report, we can put a price tag on these problems [facing our agrifood systems].” Wired wrote that “hidden costs can be interconnected”, using the example of cacao – where farmers in low-income countries “are often paid a pittance for their crops”, while over-consumption of chocolate in higher-income countries can lead to negative health outcomes there. Jack Bobo, the director of the Food Systems Institute at the University of Nottingham, told Wired that the cross-border calculations required for true-cost accounting “can get fiendishly complicated”. Bobo said: “If you export your environmental footprint to the most biodiverse countries on the planet, you may not have a more sustainable system…There’s not one perfect system.”

DRC controversy

OIL AND GAS BLOCKS: A company chosen by the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a “technically complex project” to extract gas from Lake Kivu, a large lake located on the DRC-Rwanda border, did not meet the financial criteria in its proposal, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and Reuters found. Alfajiri Energy, a Canadian start-up, was selected last month to extract methane from Lake Kivu – described as a “killer lake” due to its risk of a toxic, deadly eruption. The DRC’s decision to auction off land for oil and gas exploration, announced last year, has been “plagued with apparent preferential treatment and backroom deals”, TBIJ said. 

BIDDING WARS: A 2022 report seen by Reuters and TBIJ said that Alfajiri Energy “lacked vital information, such as a work plan or feasibility study” and scored lowest out of three companies applying for the contract. The same experts involved in this report later made a “remarkable U-turn” in a second report, which “reposition[ed] Alfajiri as the highest-scoring bidder”, TBIJ said. Reuters noted: “The auction, which took place last year, was the first of its kind to be conducted in [the DRC] under a law from 2015 that was designed to promote transparency in the oil and gas sector.”

RESPONSE: Reuters said that the DRC’s hydrocarbons minister, Didier Budimbu, denied any problems with the tender process, adding in a text message: “The process was very transparent and it will remain so. I will make sure of it.” He told TBIJ that he maintains transparent relations with all potential investors in the tendering process, reassuring them that the DRC is “now the destination for those who want to seize the opportunity to do business”. Reuters said the DRC president’s office declined to comment. Alfajiri’s founder and chief executive, Christian Hamuli, called the process “rigorous, transparent and credible”, Reuters said. Hamuli told TBIJ that Alfajiri has “highly qualified and experienced professionals with integrity” who are capable of developing the Lake Kivu project in a secure manner.

THREE BASINS: Elsewhere in Central Africa, tropical forest countries from across three continents agreed to work together to finance and protect their ecosystems, but failed to firm up a unified alliance at a summit in the Republic of the Congo late last month. Carbon Brief reported the key outcomes of the Three Basins Summit, which were described as ”underwhelming” by one observer. The final declaration, agreed between countries located in the tropical forest basins of the Amazon, the Congo and the Borneo-Mekong, “fails to commit to any concrete actions for the protection and restoration of nature”, according to a statement by Greenpeace. But an observer told Carbon Brief it might “inform policies and strategies at COP28”.

News and views

NO OLIVE BRANCH: Some 40,000 olive trees and hundreds of square kilometres of land have been burned in southern Lebanon in “fires caused by Israeli shelling” since last month, Reuters reported. More than 130 fires have been recorded by the agricultural ministry. The olive harvest has not happened yet, meaning that farmers are losing this year’s harvest in addition to the trees themselves. More than 110,000 farmers and growers in Lebanon rely on olive trees for their income, Reuters added. Lebanon’s agricultural minister, Abbas Hajj Hassan, told the newswire: “People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today.”

AGREEMENT ON ICE: An international meeting in Tasmania “failed to agree on new conservation areas” for the fragile Antarctic marine environment, the Guardian wrote. The meeting, comprising 26 national governments and the EU, “hear[d] evidence the southern continent is facing a range of crises”, but the Russian delegation “opposed proposals to boost environmental protection”, the newspaper explained. Further debate on the three proposed protected areas has been pushed to next year as a result. The executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, Claire Christian, said: “It feels like we are taking one step forward and two steps back on Antarctic marine protection.”

KENYA OFFSETS: Kenya has signed a deal with Blue Carbon, a UAE-based company, that would “concede ‘millions of hectares’ of its territory for the production of carbon credits”, the Middle East Eye reported. This follows a “slew” of similar deals with Liberia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the news site said. Elsewhere, the Guardian reported on allegations of sexual harassment at a leading carbon-offsetting project in southern Kenya, which is used by companies such as Netflix and Shell. A report from two NGOs alleged “extensive sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation between 2011 and 2023” by senior male employees of Wildlife Works, a California-based firm operating the Kasigau Corridor conservation project. In a statement, Wildlife Works’ president, Mike Korchinsky, said the company suspended three people after it became aware of the allegations in August. 

BLOW TO FARMERS: Extreme weather events, such as floods, heavy rainfall and hailstorms, have made Italy fall to second place in worldwide wine production, wrote Fortune, with France now in first place. Overall, European wine production fell 5.5% compared with the average production from the last five years, according to the European farming lobby Copa-Cogeca. Meanwhile, in the UK, farmers have warned that potato and cereal crops might be affected by the recent floods caused by Storm Babet in October, reported the Guardian. The newspaper added that farmers’ crops were rotting due to the floods, driving the National Farmers’ Union to call on the government to implement a water strategy to prevent damages.

LATIN AMERICAN DROUGHT: The state of Pará, in northern Brazil, suffered an “unusually fierce dry season” caused by the combination of large-scale cattle farming, climate change and weather events such as El Niño, the Guardian reported. The publication wrote that palm trees “have started to shrivel up and turn brown”, rivers and aquifers are drying, the odour of smoke permeates the air and land-grabbers “are taking advantage of the tinder-dry conditions”. In the state of the Amazonas, also in Brazil, more than 3,000 forest fires were registered over 1-23 October, which has increased the number of respiratory problems, reported Mongabay. At the same time, it is expected that a “severe drought” will reduce daily ship crossings of the Panama Canal and increase shipping costs, according to MercoPress.

DUBIOUS DECLARATION: A new Unearthed investigation found that large EU agribusiness groups are using a “pro-meat manifesto” to lobby senior EU politicians. The “Dublin Declaration” – signed by more than 1,000 scientists and used by trade groups to oppose green policies – was “written, released and promoted by agribusiness consultants”, freedom of information requests revealed. Prof Erik Mathijs told Unearthed the declaration “is actually fairly uncontroversial” in asking that the “social, historical and cultural value” of animal food products be recognised. New York University’s Dr Matthew Hayek told the outlet the declaration was a “hugely misleading endeavour” that “fosters confusion and doubt when there should be none”. The declaration’s organising committee denied that their ties to private organisations was affecting their scientific objectivity. 

Watch, read, listen

BANKING ON SEEDS: Indigenous peoples in Brazil are preserving the country’s biodiversity through a seed bank, Amanda Magnani wrote for Latin America News Dispatch.

‘DAUNTING TASK’: Marine geographer Dr Dawn Wright told NPR’s Short Wave about her experience exploring the seafloor and its importance for human life.

ENERGY VS ENVIRONMENT: In Cambodia, renewable energy projects are sparking debate over their impacts on local biodiversity, Anton Delgado said in the Japan Times.

INSECT REVOLUTION: A podcast from Table addressed the opportunities for expanding insect consumption in Europe and its potential to reduce land and water use.

New science

Adaptation of sea turtles to climate warming: Will phenological responses be sufficient to counteract changes in reproductive output?

Global Change Biology

According to a new study, changes in nesting behaviours will not be sufficient to offset the impacts of changing temperatures on sea turtles at a majority of nesting sites. Researchers modelled sea turtle hatching using both historical and projected air and sea temperatures under a moderate warming scenario, then assessed how nesting earlier or later in the year would improve hatching success and influence the sex ratio of the hatchlings. They found that although some turtles could maintain their current nesting temperatures, success rates and sex ratios by shifting their nesting timing, for half of the sites, no such shift would be able to maintain current temperatures. They conclude: “Turtles may need to use other adaptive responses and/or there is the need to enhance sea turtle resilience to climate warming.”

Climate change exacerbates nutrient disparities from seafood

Nature Climate Change

The availability of nutrients, such as iron and zinc, is expected to decline in seafood by around 30% by the end of the century in low-income countries under 4C of warming, a new study found. The researchers combined fisheries databases and predictive models to analyse nutrients from fisheries and aquaculture in the past and to project future paths under climate change. They found that climate change, for example, has driven changes in species distributions and productivity and modified catch composition, changing the nutrients people consume. The researchers highlighted the importance of seafood for physical and mental development and suggested securing “effective mitigation to support nutritional security of vulnerable nations and global health equity”.

Integrating climate adaptation and transboundary management: Guidelines for designing climate-smart marine protected areas 

One Earth

New research found that future climate change, including marine heatwaves, could diminish ecological connectivity – the ability of organisms to move freely – in marine protected areas (MPAs) by 50% and hinder the recovery of vulnerable species to those changes. The researchers mapped and analysed areas of the coastal Pacific Ocean near California that met proposed MPA guidelines, then quantified the connectivity of fish and invertebrate larvae. The authors provided 21 guidelines for designing marine reserve networks, including incorporating connectivity, allowing time for recovery and adapting to climate change. They concluded that expanding marine protected areas coverage – particularly critical areas for connectivity and climate refugia – is crucial to enhancing the climate resilience of the ocean.

In the diary

Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz. Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org

The post Cropped 8 November 2023: ‘Hidden costs’ of food; Gas auction controversy; Looking towards COP28 appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Cropped 8 November 2023: ‘Hidden costs’ of food; Gas auction controversy; Looking towards COP28

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Climate Change

New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation

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August 24, 2026

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New Zealand’s parliament has adopted a controversial new law blocking a whole avenue of climate litigation and shutting down its most advanced corporate lawsuit, which has been blamed by the government for shaking business confidence and investment.

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill, expected to take effect in the coming days after it is formally signed by the Governor-General, prevents all current and future civil claims for climate loss or harm under tort law.

Justice minister Paul Goldsmith said last week that the aim was to give businesses “certainty around their climate change obligations”, noting it would not alter the government’s responsibilities under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 nor business obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

“Our response to climate change is best managed by the Government at a national level and not through piece-meal litigation in the courts,” he added in a statement.

Such litigation, he said, “risks developing a new regime that contradicts the framework Parliament has already enacted” to tackle climate change.

    Goldsmith singled out a key domestic climate lawsuit brought by Northland iwi leader and activist Mike Smith against six big companies: dairy firms Fonterra and Dairy Holdings, energy firms Genesis Energy and Z Energy, New Zealand Steel and coal mining firm BT Mining. A seventh original defendant, Channel Infrastructure, was dropped after it permanently decommissioned its Marsden Point oil refinery.

    Smith argued that these companies had caused him harm under public nuisance and negligence law, as well as a third breach of a duty to cease contributing to climate change that has yet to be tested domestically. He did not seek financial compensation, instead asking for the companies to immediately stop emitting or contributing to net greenhouse gas emissions.

    In one of the most advanced corporate climate accountability lawsuits in the world, a trial had been scheduled for April 2027 after the Supreme Court unanimously allowed the case to continue.

    Corporate lobbying in the shadows

    Smith described the passing of the bill as “deeply concerning”, particularly as it coincided with the Supreme Court hearing another of his climate lawsuits. In that case, Smith v Attorney-General, he argues that the government’s response to climate change and its impacts on Māori communities in particular breaches rights to life and culture.

    “That timing raises profound questions about the separation of powers and the rule of law,” said Smith. “Whatever one’s view of the merits of these cases, it is deeply troubling when parliament intervenes to remove a legal pathway while the courts are actively considering fundamental questions about climate responsibility, rights and the crown’s obligations.”

    The bill – which says that no person (including the government) can be found liable in tort for emissions-related climate change effects – followed major lobbying efforts by the companies defending themselves in Smith’s lawsuit. They outlined a proposed legal amendment in a briefing note to the government in 2024.

    The centre-right government has been fiercely criticised over its lack of transparency in relation to this lobbying activity. The national ombudsman recently found that the Prime Minister’s Office effectively withheld information requested by the Environmental Law Initiative about meetings, discussions and conversations regarding Smith’s case.

    Green groups fail to stop bill

    The bill sparked huge concern among environmental campaigners in New Zealand and elsewhere. Greenpeace Aotearoa called it a “shocking abuse of executive power” and the vast majority of submissions to a parliamentary inquiry said it should be rejected.

    But in the end, it was adopted with little resistance, moving relatively smoothly through parliament, passing its third reading by 67 votes to 53. Sam Bookman, climate law lecturer at Melbourne Law School, told Climate Home News he was not surprised by this, given that the coalition government has a secure majority.

    A complaint has been made to the UN special rapporteur on climate change and human rights by Smith, the National Iwi Chairs Forum Pou Tikanga and youth coalition Climate Clinic Aotearoa over what they see as the government’s heavy-handed approach. Smith is also challenging the new law in yet another lawsuit.

    “Pathetic”: New Zealand plans to barely cut emissions between 2030 and 2035

    Bookman thinks it “very unlikely” that such a challenge will succeed, noting that New Zealand’s constitution is firmly anchored in parliamentary sovereignty.

    But the expert in climate law does not see the bill as the end of legal action in the country, noting that New Zealand has a “sophisticated climate litigation landscape with a growing number of specialist and experienced lawyers and NGOs”.

    The country is also approaching its next general election in November, and some opposition parties have pledged to restore access to the courts if elected.

    Amanda Larsson, global project lead on agriculture for Greenpeace International, said: “This law deserves to be tested, and I strongly encourage the international climate litigation community to unite and help defend New Zealanders’ fundamental right to hold polluters accountable before this becomes a global blueprint.”

    Copycat legislation on the rise

    New Zealand’s move is part of a small but growing legislative effort to shut down climate litigation around the world.

    In the US, Republican politicians introduced legislation in the House and Senate in April that would shield fossil fuel firms from climate liability lawsuits. Similar laws have already been passed at state level in Tennessee, Utah, Iowa and Louisiana.

    The German state of Bavaria has put forward a similar proposal to the Federal Council, aiming to block private climate claims as well as the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments imposing such liability. There are also proposals to limit available remedies and actions in the Netherlands and Belgium.

    UN General Assembly backs “climate obligations” set by world’s top court

    Bookman said he expects more efforts to counter climate damages litigation and advised plaintiffs to think about how to respond, including drawing on broader support in opposing them.

    “Even though it’s very hard for plaintiffs to win these types of cases, companies are very eager to avoid the expense, embarrassment and political accountability that come even with unsuccessful lawsuits,” he said.

    The post New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation appeared first on Climate Home News.

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    Climate Change

    Indonesia’s nickel production cuts are not enough to create a sustainable industry 

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    August 24, 2026

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    Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara is the Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), an Indonesia-based economic think tank. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is the Director of the China-Indonesia desk at CELIOS. 

    Indonesia produces around 60% of the world’s nickel, a metal used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) – more than any other country in the world. But in 2026, the government sharply reduced how much of its nickel can be extracted from the ground.

    Production quotas were reduced by around 40% this year compared to 2025. Weda Bay, the largest nickel mine on Earth, had its allowance cut by more than 70% and exhausted its full-year quota by the end of May, halting mining entirely; it cannot resume large-scale extraction until next year unless regulators grant an extension.

    The policy has sparked a vivid debate in Indonesian policy circles: how can the country shift its strategy from a decade of mining vast quantities of cheap nickel to producing a high-value and low-carbon material that the rest of the world wants for EV batteries.

    The cuts aren’t a silver bullet to clean up Indonesia’s nickel industry, whose smelters are powered by coal – the most polluting fossil fuels. But alongside stricter enforcement of environmental rules, it is one side of efforts to produce more sustainable nickel for a premium.

    Restricting Indonesia’s nickel output

    Production quotas were introduced to stop the collapse of nickel prices because of oversupply in the market. Prices had fallen more than 40% in 2023 alone and kept sliding as Indonesian supply kept growing, hitting a four-year low of around $13,900 a ton in late 2025.

    Critics called the recent tightening of production quotas proof that Indonesia’s nickel strategy has failed, arguing that the industry shouldn’t need to throttle its own output to survive. But when assessed against what the policy was supposed to do – push up nickel prices – it has worked. Prices jumped to $20,000 a ton in May, the highest since 2024.

      Chinese industry groups representing companies that have invested billions to mine and refine the country’s nickel were furious, warning Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto that the cuts put $50 billion worth of investment at risk. But much of that Chinese capital is sunk into smelters and processing plants built specifically to run on Indonesian ore, and cannot simply be moved elsewhere. That gives Jakarta more room to hold its ground than the warning suggests.

      Stronger environmental enforcement

      Since the start of the year, Indonesia’s forestry task force has seized more than four million hectares of land from mines and plantations operating illegally in protected forests, collecting over two trillion rupiah ($113 million) in fines.

      This included 148 hectares seized from Weda Bay for lacking a forestry permit. The share of nickel produced from illegal small-scale mining also fell from about a quarter in 2022 to roughly 10% by 2024.

      The crackdown responds to serious environmental damages in the nickel industry. On Obi Island, a waste pond collapsed after heavy rain in June 2025, flooding three villages and killing a resident. Internal company tests found chromium-6 – a carcinogen – in the water, in quantities far above the legal limit. The footprint of another mine near Raja Ampat, which is home to some of the world’s richest coral reefs, grew 60-fold in just eight years.

      A coastal village is wedged between the sea and a large nickel mine in Indonesia
      The fishing villages of Tapunggaya in Sulawesi, Indonesia, are squeezed between the sea and an expanding nickel mine (Photo by Garry Lotulung/NurPhoto)

      The market is responding to early cleanup efforts. Low-carbon nickel now sells for a real premium, roughly $18,800 to $19,300 a ton compared with $17,900 to $18,300 otherwise, as carmakers seek to source cleaner materials to comply with the European Union’s new emissions rules for imports.

      In turn, this is incentivising the industry to do more to green its operations. Vale Indonesia’s smelter in South Sulawesi now runs almost entirely on hydropower, for example.

      None of this addresses coal use, however. Major Indonesian nickel producers still emitted an estimated 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. Indonesia may be cracking down on illegal mining and rewarding cleaner producers but it is still running its mines on the dirtiest fuel available.

      Unequal benefits

      For Indonesia to truly benefit from producing cleaner and high-value nickel, it needs to reap the economic benefits too. Although the industry has boosted the country’s economic growth, the reality on the ground tells a different story.

      Konawe in Southeast Sulawesi is home to a major smelting complex. Growth in the district jumped from 6% to 22% between 2015 and 2023, driven almost entirely by the nickel industry, according to a study by the Lowy Institute study. At the same time, poverty levels increased slightly and unemployment remained unchanged.

        In Halmahera, another epicentre of the nickel industry, spending by the poorest fifth grew just 5% between 2019 and 2022, compared with 28% for the wealthiest fifth, according to a separate study.

        Part of the reason for this inequality is the system for transferring mining royalties to district authorities where the mines are located. In theory, they are entitled to the largest share. But in practice, payments are delayed, companies routinely dispute what they owe and royalties are pooled and distributed across a larger area.

        The Natural Resource Governance Institute has found that decentralisation handed local governments power to approve new mines faster than they could build their capacity to manage them. Higher output raises national income on paper, but local governments remain constrained by fiscal rules and infrastructure costs that scale with mining.

        None of this makes the 2026 quota cuts a mistake. Indonesia has every right to defend its pricing power over a resource it controls. But limiting extraction isn’t going to fix underlying issues around environmental enforcement and revenue-sharing. That requires rules that are consistently enforced, royalties that reach communities living by the mines, and a plan to wean smelters off coal.

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        Risk of “catastrophic” oil spill reaching Kimberley coast found in Woodside’s Scott Reef gas drilling plans

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        August 24, 2026

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        SYDNEY, Monday 24 August 2026 – New analysis of Woodside modelling released by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Environs Kimberley has revealed the oil and gas corporation’s plans to drill at Scott Reef could cause an oil spill up to 30 times bigger than the 2009 Montara disaster, impacting the Kimberley coastline and reaching as far as Indonesia.

        The new analysis details the “catastrophic” oil spill risk put to environmental regulators for approval by Woodside in its Browse to North West Shelf Project (Browse) plans, the worst-case scenario being a blowout directly below Scott Reef, polluting whale migratory pathways and covering isolated turtle nesting ground with oil condensate.

        An FOI application (F348) revealed the federal environment department (DCCEEW) asked offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA to look into the oil spill risk in 2025. NOPSEMA’s response to the application refused access to its report, and one document shows DCCEEW sought further advice this year.

        Greenpeace and Environs Kimberley are calling on the Federal Government to publicly release the NOPSEMA report given the risk of an uncontrolled release of oil condensate from directly below Scott Reef.

        Hannah Schuch, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Woodside is aware that drilling at Scott Reef risks a massive oil spill that would have severe, far-reaching consequences. It appears environmental regulators are aware too.

        “The state and federal governments need to take this risk from Woodside’s drilling plans seriously, as they could end up allowing the worst oil spill in Australian history.

        “The pygmy blue whales that migrate up and down the WA coast with their newborns each year could be swimming and feeding in toxic, oil-slicked water. Woodside’s proposal to drill at Scott Reef is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, and the WA and federal governments have one surefire way to prevent catastrophe — reject Browse.”

        Martin Prichard, Executive Director at Environs Kimberley, said: “A catastrophic oil spill by Woodside would be disastrous not just for marine life in the area but also for the Kimberley’s $500 million tourism industry.

        “The state and federal governments will see five marine parks on the Kimberley coast included in the risk area of a catastrophic Woodside oil spill.

        “The Montara oil spill was disastrous for West Timor with the toxic oil destroying seaweed farmers’ livelihoods. The Kimberley dodged a bullet with Montara, we were lucky the spill didn’t head our way. Myself and a crew flew over the Montara oil spill and followed it as far as we could. It was like a scene from a disaster movie.”

        After the WA Environmental Protection Authority deemed Browse “unacceptable” due, in part, to oil spill risk, Woodside submitted a mitigation plan based on technology that has never been used “in anger”, a weakness stated in an independent expert review of the plan.

        Professor Richard Steiner, independent oil spill expert, said: “A large offshore spill is impossible to effectively contain or recover. Historically, only 2-6% of total spill volume is recovered and the ecological injury from the release of toxic hydrocarbons in the sea can be severe, extensive, and long-term.

        “Here in Alaska, government research concludes that several marine populations injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, including whales, fish, and seabirds, are still not recovering today, 37 years later. We should expect similar long-term ecological impacts in Western Australia if there were to be a major oil spill. The only sure way to avoid the risk of a catastrophic marine oil spill is to not develop oil and gas projects in marine environments.”

        -ENDS-

        Media contact

        Emma Sangalli on emma.sangalli@greenpeace.org or 0431 513 465

        Risk of “catastrophic” oil spill reaching Kimberley coast found in Woodside’s Scott Reef gas drilling plans

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