Griffith University's Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe said developing shale gas would have "a catastrophic impact on Australia's efforts to slow climate change".

Professor Lowe this week released a report "Climate Change Impacts of proposed shale gas development in the NT".

Experts have already suggested the shale gas industry could lift Australia's greenhouse gases as much as three per cent.

The NT Government has said it was still negotiating with the Federal Government on a way to provide a trade off from any rise in greenhouse gas production from shale gas.

The NT Government has set an a long-term "aspirational" target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Professor Lowe, who was the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2004 to 2014, said he used CSIRO research and comparisons with the US shale gas industry for his calculations.

He said it was "criminally irresponsible to be proposing new fossil fuel projects, whether they are coal, oil or gas".

"Shale gas is especially inappropriate because its extraction inevitably involves fugitive emissions of methane, which has a much greater capacity to increase global warming than carbon dioxide in the short term," he said.

World experts say methane is the worst of the greenhouse gases.

The CSIRO has just completed a methane study of the Beetaloo basin and found it was a low emitter of greenhouse gases.

At least two energy companies, Origin Energy and Santos, are drilling and fracking their exploratory wells in the Beetaloo before this wet season.

Professor Lowe said fracking the NT's reserves could contribute about 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year if industry projections play out.

Australia's total domestic emissions for the most recent year - the highest ever recorded - were 560 million tonnes.

"Approving development of these resources would have a catastrophic impact on Australia's efforts to slow climate change, and are totally incompatible with our obligations under the Paris agreement," Professor Lowe said.

Protect Country Alliance spokesman Graeme Sawyer said Professor Lowe's report showed the gas industry's spin for what it was.

"Methane leakage rates are poorly understood, with the true figure likely much higher," Mr Sawyer said.

"If the NT fracking industry is allowed to develop, it will mean bad news for the NT, Australia, and the world. Methane is up to 30 times more potent as a heat trapping gas than carbon dioxide, and numerous reports have pointed to the spreading fracking industry as a big driver of dangerous global warming."

The NT Government has been contacted for comment.

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