On 21 October, jurisdictional energy officials released a consultation paper to identify and develop amendments to the National Gas Law (NGL), the National Energy Retail Law (NERL) and Regulations. A copy of the consultation paper is available here.
 
It is imperative that Australia reduces its emissions from combustion of natural gas in order to meet its long-term emissions reduction objective and contribute to limiting global warming under the terms of the Paris Agreement. To achieve this outcome, the energy currently provided by the combustion of natural gas must be reduced or met from a mix of alternate energy sources that produce zero-emissions; principally, renewable electricity or renewable gases. 
 
We strongly support investigations into the ability for natural gas to be replaced by zero-emissions methane and other zero-emissions gases, such as hydrogen, and the appropriate scale for doing so in the context of competing technologies to decarbonise Australia’s economy over time. However, we note that some caution must be exercised in regulating blended gas products in the same way as natural gas, as the properties of blended gases are likely to diverge from the specification of natural gas, even at low concentrations.
 
AGL has made a submission in response to the issues raised in the consultation paper, available here.