On Thursday, Australia’s emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, told parliament the country’s thriving liquified natural gas(LNG) trade – a fossil fuel industry – was cutting global greenhouse pollution by 150 million tonnes a year.

It was no small claim: equivalent to more than a quarter of what Australia emits every year.

Two days earlier, an analysis by US-based researchers and anti-fossil fuel advocates the Global Energy Monitor found if all US$1.3tn worth of LNG developments planned across the globe went ahead they would do at least as much to drive the world into climate catastrophe as new coal investments, possibly more. Australia is a significant player in this drive, with $38bn in investments on the books – fourth behind only the US, Canada or Russia...

Frank Jotzo, an economist and professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, says: “What is certain is the expansion of the LNG industry is holding up the transition to zero carbon fuels.”

He says any conversation about LNG emissions come with a significant caveat: we still do not have a good estimate of global fugitive emissions.

Read the full Guardian article, written by Adam Morton here.