Western Australian government declines to say whether Roger Cook’s claims backed by publicly available government or third-party analysis

Adam Morton Climate and environment editor
Fri 17 Nov 2023 09.00 EST

The Western Australian government has produced no evidence to back up a claim that expanding the state’s gas industry – and increasing its greenhouse gas pollution in the short term – will be good for the planet as it will lead to a “dramatic reduction” in global emissions.

The premier, Roger Cook, made the claim at a media conference on Thursday. Cook made similar arguments at a WA energy transition summit on Friday, when speakers including the federal resources minister, Madeleine King, backed the development of new gas reserves alongside renewable energy and critical minerals.

Cook told the summit that countries such as Japan and South Korea “would have no choice but to use more coal” if it was not for liquified natural gas [LNG] exported from WA.

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