Japan's corporate and political agenda underpins the gas empire, but it is increasingly supported by countries around the Asia-Pacific, including Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and South Korea. Across these different countries, what are the experiences of communities on the ground who live with the day-to-day reality of the gas empire?

A new report from Jubilee Australia Research Centre, titled Resisting the Gas Empire, threads together five case studies from around the region to better understand the common experiences of communities resisting gas industry expansion. 

Five case studies chart the journey of the gas supply chain, from extraction in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to downstream industrial hubs in Thailand and South Korea.

The Asia-Pacific is the world’s largest importer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), spurred on by the seismic expansion of gas production in Australia and the enduring role of Japan in financing, enabling and greenwashing gas across the region. 

These political and corporate stakeholders behind the gas empire are locking the region into dangerous fossil fuel dependence, a vulnerability which has been exposed by the US-Israel war on Iran and the ensuing global energy crisis. 

To better understand the footprint of the gas industry we interviewed five community leaders who  bring a wealth of expertise in cultural lore, healthcare, conservation, local governance, and community education.  were corroborated with a broad evidence base, including financial analysis, climate reporting, health research and environmental monitoring. 

In the Arafura and Timor Seas, offshore oil and gas drilling directly threatens the wellbeing and livelihoods of the coastal communities who depend on these waters. Tiwi elders are sounding the alarm on potential cascading impacts of the industry’s expansion, and calling for better transboundary management of shared waters, in line with international law.

In Garramilla/Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory, existing gas export facilities have been found to be leaking pollutants and underreporting on their pollution levels, triggering concerns from the public over the community’s health. The Indigenous Larrakia people of Darwin have voiced their opposition to the proposal for Middle Arm - set to be Australia’s largest LNG export facility, and a drain on public subsidies.

In PNG the proposal to build Papua LNG and to establish PNG as a major gas exporter poses serious risks to the country’s precious biodiversity, as local landowners formally withdraw their consent for the project and call for an independent consultation process. 

In Rayong Province in Thailand, residents are disproportionately affected by a range of serious health issues, including  increased rates of cancer and respiratory illness. Local economic activity has been hindered by environmental damage and land reclamation, whilst clean energy advocates call for Thailand to tap into its solar potential.

In Chungnam Province in South Korea community members have pushed back against the gas industry’s attempts to replace coal, as the impacts of both have left the community’s health and local economy devastated. As Korea pursues construction of further gas import infrastructure, current facilities remain under-utilised, exposing the corporate-political agenda behind the gas empire’s expansion.

Individually, each makes a compelling case for the phaseout of gas. But together, they reveal common threads:

• Gas industry infrastructure poses serious risks to human health, with respiratory conditions and increased rates of cancer reported across multiple case studies

• Communities are often lacking important information about the risks of gas.

• Building and running gas infrastructure poses a severe threat to the natural environment and its biodiversity. 

• Local communities are not seeing the economic benefits of gas and report negative impacts on their own local businesses and livelihoods. 

• Communities are advocating for a transition to renewable energy over gas, citing it as a cleaner, cheaper alternative for energy security. 

• The human rights of communities are frequently disregarded by gas companies and financiers, and Free, Prior and Informed Consent is rarely provided by communities despite international law and governing standards

• Communities are experiencing the double hit of gas industry impacts and climate change, with multiple case studies located in areas at risk of becoming unliveable in the following decades

• Gas expansion is being driven by a corporate and political agenda, not a genuine demand for gas. Downstream infrastructure remains underutilised, questioning the need for more gas imports. 

• The gas industry is a drain on public money.

In response to these systemic failures, frontline communities are organising towards alternative visions for their homes. They are rooted in a just, localised, and clean renewable energy transition that protects health, preserves cultural heritage and sovereignty, enables better economic opportunities, redirects public financing subsidies from fossil fuels to more sustainable initiatives, and restores local/traditional and First Nations-led systems of land rehabilitation and stewardship.

Supporting community advocacy

National governments have an obligation to phase out fossil fuel production and support the development of a shared global framework for a just transition away from fossil fuels, such as the Fossil Fuel Treaty initiative. The framework  should establish inclusive national transition bodies to coordinate energy, fiscal, industrial, labour and financial policies and embed equity and justice across the transition.

Resisting the Gas Empire endorses the key demands from grassroots communities, advocacy network Sea of Nations and the Protect Larrakia Country campaign, making the following recommendations for the Australian government:

• Cease issuing new leases for offshore gas exploration and production and cancel existing exploration and retention leases.

• Introduce the requirement for transboundary impact assessments.

• Immediately stop the $1.9 billion in public funding for the Middle Arm gas hub in the May 2027 Federal Budget. 

• Redirect this funding to a First Nations-led just transition for Darwin. 

• Hold fossil fuel corporations accountable by requiring full rehabilitation of land and sea damaged at the Middle Arm peninsular and returning this country to the protection and care of Larrakia people. 

• Establish a Climate Pollution Levy on coal, gas and oil corporations to raise approximately $46 billion per year to pay for the climate damage these corporations are causing. 

Read the full report here.