Climate Lobbying Overview: APPEA is highly engaged with Australian climate change policy. The organisation has taken positions against the need for stringent regulatory intervention to address climate change and has particularly opposed measures to transition the economy away from fossil fuels.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: In its third edition of its climate change policy principles, released in February 2021, APPEA has stated it supports the science of climate change. Regarding the need for climate policy, in its 2021 climate change policy principles, APPEA stated support for national policy that applied a broad-based price signal on emissions to facilitate broad-based investment decisions. However, at the same time, APPEA appears to oppose the existence of separate state policies, which in Australia, are typically more ambitious. In this same document, APPEA also revealed its new support for a net zero by 2050 target. However, this support appears to come with significant caveats: APPEA also argued that Australian climate policy should maintain the competitiveness of Australia’s trade exposed industries, including the LNG industry. Moreover, APPEA has argued that future climate policy in Australia should aim at enhance Australia as a destination for LNG investment.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: APPEA has had negative engagement with a number of policies. In 2019, APPEA opposed the Western Australian EPA's proposed changes to Greenhouse Gas Assessment Guidance for new projects, which included counting Scope 3 emissions and requiring organisations to offset all emissions for large projects. In 2020, APPEA again lobbied against the inclusion of Scope 3 reporting requirements under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation act. In this instance, APPEA lobbied against using the EPBC act to reduce greenhouse emissions altogether. APPEA has repeatedly lobbied to weaken the safeguard mechanism, including in 2018, when it lobbied for updated baselines to reflect 'business conditions'. In 2017-2018, APPEA supported the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) but with multiple caveats. These included exemptions for trade-exposed industries, exemptions from emission requirements for LNG-for-export, and in June 2018 APPEA stated its opposition to a recommendation to impose a financial penalty for non-compliance with the policy.

At the same time, APPEA appears to have opposed several renewable energy policies. APPEA has voiced its opposition to individual renewable energy targets at the state level in Australia, and in June 2018 proposed replacing these and lessening the role of the Renewable Energy Target with a “low-cost” NEG. In 2020, APPEA supported reform to change the remit of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency from funding renewable energy to funding ‘low emissions technology’ such as CCS.

Positioning on Energy Transition: APPEA has strongly promoted the role of gas Australia’s energy mix. In February 2018 the organization sought to have LNG manufactured for export made exempt from emissions reductions requirements. In 2019, APPEA opposed the Western Australian EPA’s greenhouse gas assessment guidelines for project approvals. In 2020, APPEA has pushed for an increased role for gas as part of the government’s Technology Roadmap. APPEA has also been active in pushing for support for fossil fuel development in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes advocating ‘fast-tracking’ brownfield coal developments, advocating an expansion in gas usage and fracking in the Northern Territory, as well as lobbying for new fossil fuel subsidies. As well as directly lobbying policymakers, it has used to indirect tactics to influence public opinion, for example, advertising heavily in the Northern Territory August 2020 election to promote the role of unconventional gas production in boosting economic recovery from the pandemic. In its 2021 climate change policy position document, APPEA continued to promote increasing the production of gas for use in the energy mix.