Revealed: the astonishing greenhouse gas emissions that will result from the North West Shelf project

Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia is one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas ventures.

In May the Labor government approved an extension for the project to run for an additional 40 years, from 2030 to 2070.

The extension is expected to be responsible for about 87.9m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year in the decades ahead, after the gas has been exported and burned, according to Woodside’s own numbers.

Despite the North West Shelf contributing “almost nothing” in terms of Australian tax dollars, it will be responsible for emissions greater than dozens of countries and many of the world’s biggest companies.

It can be hard to get your head around numbers this big.

This chart represents 87.9m tonnes of emissions (measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2-e). Each square is 500 tonnes, which is about what you would emit if you drove around Australia 125 times in an average car (which we define below the chart).

Notes and methods:

• North West Shelf project extension emissions are scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions set out in the EPA application

• Qantas domestic emissions are scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2023-24 as reported to the Clean Energy Regulator

• Australian total agriculture emissions are the sum of agricultural emissions in the December 2024 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory

• Emissions from all Australian gas plants derived from the primary fuel type in the 2023-24 electricity sector emissions data

• Switzerland and Ireland total 2023 emissions sourced from Our World in Data

• Apple’s emissions based on information from its 2024 environmental progress report, with more information about why renewable energy certificates and offsets are excluded here

• Driving around Australia emissions estimated for doing the M1 “big lap” with a fuel consumption of 6.9L/100km