Environmentalists say the NT government should have backed solar instead of gas in the Katherine region as part of its economic recovery plan.
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Environment Centre co-director Kirsty Howey said the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission's final report missed an opportunity to back renewable energy in its release yesterday.
The TERC report singled out the gas industry and the Beetaloo Basin as a priority for the NT's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms Howey said solar would have been a better long term fit for the Katherine region.
"The Environment Centre thinks that renewables really pose the greatest potential for the Katherine region and all the way down to the Beetaloo," she said.
"In Katherine you'd have to say solar ... we could transform our economy and also support regional communities like Katherine."
Ms Howey said investing in gas will increase the NT's emissions and contribute to climate change.
She said the focus on gas contradicts the government's and TERC's commitment to tackle global warming and achieve net-zero emissions.
"The report seems to have been written by two different people, on the one hand you've got assertions that we need to decarbonise the economy given the impacts of climate change," she said.
"But on the other hand you've got plans for the rapid industrialisation of fossil fuel development in the Northern Territory and we don't believe the two are compatible," she said.
"The Gunner government needs to make a choice," Ms Howey said.
"Renewables have taken over worldwide, the cost base, the reliability of renewables as a power supply for large populations has been substantiated," she said.
Ms Howey said focussing on gas could even be a bad business decision for the government as well as being environmentally damaging.
"The gas industry seems to be going out of business internationally, it is really an economic risk to the NT to be embarking upon an industry that is really yesterday's hero," she said.
The TERC was set up by the NT government to create an economic recovery plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I established the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission because I want the Territory to emerge from this crisis with a head-start," Chief Minister Michael Gunner said yesterday.
The report highlights the importance of investing in renewable energy to achieve net zero carbon emissions, however it also stresses the importance of the controversial gas industry.
"Globally, the use of gas is expected to rise both as a feedstock and a source of power, and it is critical the Territory is ready to capitalise on the opportunity the Beetaloo Basin will bring to the economy," the commission states in the report.
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