Gas usage has peaked and is now in structural decline across Australia, report says

Gas Usage Has Peaked Across Australia and Entered Structural Decline, Report Warns

Following more than fifty years of sustained growth, gas usage across Australia has peaked in every sector and entered what the Grattan Institute describes as a structural decline.

The influential thinktank's latest report revealed that residential consumption reached its highest point in 2020, while gas-fired electricity generation has fallen by eleven percent since 2014.

Furthermore, manufacturing demand has been contracting since the early 2000s, and liquefied natural gas exports appear to have peaked in 2022.

Alison Reeve, director of the institute's Energy and Climate Change program, emphasized that the trajectory was irreversible.

"Gas is now in structural decline across Australia," she argued.

"There is only one direction from a peak, and that is downward."

Nevertheless, the Grattan Institute cautioned that the current pace of reduction would be insufficient to meet net zero targets.

Without deliberate policy intervention, the country risks becoming dependent on costly carbon capture technologies.

The report's findings stand in stark contrast to recent political rhetoric.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced plans to reserve greater volumes of gas for domestic consumption, and the government has been encouraging further exploration in Victoria and Tasmania.

Treasury modelling released last year projected that the combined value of coal and gas exports would likely halve within five years as global demand for fossil fuels decelerates.

Were the government to align its policy with these projections, the Grattan Institute argued, Australia could accelerate its transition toward cleaner energy sources more effectively.