Papua LNG

The Papua LNG project alone would increase the country’s annual emissions from the industrial and energy sectors by 7%, resulting in over 220 million tons of CO2 emissions (scope 3), or as much as the annual emissions of the whole of Bangladesh and its 169 million inhabitants.   

As such, it is not compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, given that the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario recommends that new natural gas fields that have not received a final investment decision before the end of 2021, such as Papua LNG, should not be exploited.    

The people of Papua New Guinea are already bearing the full brunt of the effects of climate change. Entire communities from coastal regions and islands have already been forced to relocate, sometimes several times over, due to rising sea levels, wave damage and salinization of land and water.

The country’s first LNG infrastructure, PNG LNG, developed by ExxonMobil, has a serious record of human rights violations. Abuses by private security forces, failure to respect the consent of project-affected populations, land disputes and intra-community violence have all been reported. 

Consultations with communities affected by the Papua LNG project have provoked fears that their rights will similarly not be protected: police travelled with consultants in charge of assessing human rights impacts, and the information provided about the project remains very patchy, despite repeated requests from local communities and civil society.    

Gas from the Papua LNG project would be exported to international markets, with uncertain benefits for the country’s economy and its people. Yet another model is possible for Papua New Guinea: by 2030, 78% of the country’s electricity needs could be met at a cost of $110 million – 100 times less than that of the Papua LNG project, according to government estimates.