The boss of Australian gas giant Woodside, Meg O’Neill, has attacked young people who take an ideological stand against fossil fuels, suggesting they are hypocrites for ordering cheap online consumer goods “without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions”.
O’Neill was speaking during the gas industry’s annual conference in Brisbane, where the resources minister, Madeleine King, said the government was working to enhance exploration for gas while improving the approvals process for companies.
Climate advocates and the Greens leader, Larissa Waters, criticised the statement, saying it was “laughable” that a fossil fuel executive should blame young people for the climate crisis.
Woodside is waiting for a decision from the new environment minister, Murray Watt, on a project to extend gas production in north-west Australia until 2070, which critics say will worsen the climate crisis and risk ancient Indigenous rock art in the area.
During a panel, O’Neill was asked by moderator and Sky News contributor Chris Uhlmann, a critic of renewable energy and policies to reach net zero emissions, if people were aware of where their electricity came from.
“Most people hit a switch and expect the lights to come on,” she said.
“It’s been a fascinating journey to watch the discussion, particularly amongst young people who have this very ideological, almost zealous view of, you know, fossil fuels bad, renewables good, that are happily plugging in their devices, ordering things from [online fast-fashion stores] Shein and Temu – having, you know, one little thing shipped to their house without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions.
“So that human impact and the consumer’s role in driving energy demand and emissions absolutely is a missing space in the conversation.”
According to company documents, the sale and burning of Woodside’s gas – mostly shipped overseas – emitted 74m tonnes of CO2 last year. Last month the company announced it was spending $18bn on a Louisiana LNG project that would produce the fuel until the 2070s.
The three-day annual conference of industry group Australian Energy Producers (AEP), which started Tuesday, heard from King that the government was working to speed up approvals for projects and increase exploration efforts.
But King said the industry needed to “pay attention” to Australian public concerns on rising gas prices and concerns about domestic supply shortages on the east coast.
Earlier, AEP’s chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, said Australia needed to take advantage of a competitive edge on gas, which she said would play a critical role as the world tries to decarbonise.
But McCulloch said “this opportunity is not assured”, as Qatar and the United States try to ramp up gas production.
The former Australian treasurer and ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey, who now runs a Washington DC-based consulting firm, was earlier applauded when he told an audience via video link that Australian energy producers needed to advocate to “get the government out of the way”.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, he said: “The more regulation, the more red tape, the more green tape – the cry of energy producers in Australia should be ‘Give us certainty and stability and we can do the job’, and give Australian cheaper energy and the people of the world a greater opportunity to consume our product and make Australia richer.”
Waters was derisive on O’Neill’s comments, saying: “Here is a very well-paid, wealthy fossil fuel executive trying to claim with a straight face that the climate crisis is the fault of young people shopping online for goods they can afford in a cost-of-living crisis. You can’t be the head of a massive dirty gas company and point the finger at other people about the climate crisis.”
Grace Vegesana, national director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, said: “Climate change is happening right in front of our eyes - yet Meg O’Neill is trying to cast the blame back onto individuals. In case you’ve forgotten basic climate science Meg, yes, fossil fuels = bad.
“We’ve seen this time and time again - when fossil fuel companies feel threatened, they try to shift the blame back onto the individual and distract us from the fact that they have the power to end the climate crisis.”
Joe Rafalowicz, Greenpeace Australia head of climate and energy, said it was “laughable” a fossil fuel boss was blaming children for the climate crisis, and she should instead pay a visit to schoolchildren in northern NSW whose schools were closed last week “after yet another climate-fuelled disaster”.
