Climate activists hold placards during a protest against the Australia's energy policy outside the Australian embassy in Berlin on January 10, 2020. Photo: AFP

Australian environmental groups on Tuesday vowed to scupper plans for a vast new gas project off the country's pristine northwest coast, saying it would critically undercut international climate efforts.

Woodside Petroleum - fast becoming a major energy market player - on Monday finalized plans to sink $12 billion into developing the remote Scarborough gas field, beginning exports by 2026.

Experts and activist groups say the project is equivalent to building 15 new mid-sized coal-fired power plants, and makes a mockery of recent global commitments to halt fossil fuel investments.

"It is very big, it will result in about 1.6 billion tons of emissions over its lifetime, about 56 million tons a year," Mark Ogge, principal advisor at the Australia Institute think tank, told AFP.

"It's just an incredibly irresponsible thing to be going ahead with as the world is doing its best to tackle climate change."

Woodside this week also finalized a Aus$40 billion ($29 billion) deal to buy BHP's fossil fuel assets, creating what the latter called "a global top 10 independent energy company."

BHP - one of the world's largest mining companies - is offloading its fossil fuel assets in a bid to boost its green credentials.

Critics argue the move is "greenwashing" and will do nothing to help the environment as Woodside plans to keep BHP's fossil fuel projects alive and now has more leverage to start new drilling projects.

But the firm has the support of Australia's conservative government, which has shunned calls to decarbonize, insisting Australia will sell fossil fuels for as long as anyone is buying.

The country is already one of the world's largest exporters of coal and gas, despite feeling the effects of climate change through worsening bushfires, droughts and flooding.

Supporters argue that gas is less polluting than other fossil fuels and is a necessary bridge to a cleaner energy future.

But critics such as Greenpeace Australia slammed the Scarborough project as "toxic" and "Australia's most climate polluting development ever proposed."

AFP