National renewable gas policy

Summary of a September 2026 submission to the Energy and Climate Change Ministers' national renewable gas consultation. The submission document is not published.

Australia has a large recoverable biomethane resource and almost no biomethane in the network. The submission's design point is that a national policy has to give producers a long-dated, bankable revenue floor, differentiated by feedstock. A certificate penalty with no floor, such as the proposed NSW shortfall price, acts as a ceiling. Lenders size debt against the floor, not against a price nobody is obliged to pay.

It asks that the policy focus on pipeline-spec methane, including e-methane made from biogenic carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and that bioLPG, raw biogas, and hydrogen keep their own policies. It treats a domestic gas reservation as a fossil-supply tool, not as a substitute for a renewable-gas price.

This is a summary for the briefing desk. It is not the submission, and it is not legal advice.