Join Us and Say NO to Oil & Gas Drilling Off Sydney's Coast!

Our amazing NSW coastline is being threatened by Petroleum Exploration Permit 11 (PEP-11), a proposal to open an offshore oil and gas field from Sydney to Newcastle. It puts at risk the most populated and prosperous stretch of coast in Australia.

With our health, lifestyle and local economies all heavily reliant on a healthy ocean, PEP-11 could prove disastrous on all fronts for communities along the NSW coast.

An oil spill or gas leak could: decimate local economies, including coastal tourism and fisheries; irreparably damage the local marine and coastal ecosystems; disrupt whale migration routes; destroy the habitat of countless species including the endangered Manly colony of Little Penguins; and negatively impact the physical and mental health of millions of Australians.

Granting the PEP11 licence for offshore oil and gas drilling will set a dangerous precedent for the east coast of Australia that could see runaway fossil fuel industrialisation just offshore from our favourite beaches. At a time when the world needs to drastically reduce it’s emissions to meet our Paris Agreement commitments, PEP-11 will simply lock in decades of disastrous climate pollution. Australia needs climate action, not new oil & gas fields.

We therefore ask the Australian Parliament to support Zali Steggall MP’s Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Stopping PEP-11) Bill 2021.

Is Drilling for Oil & Gas Off Sydney's Coast A Really Bad Idea? Yes It Is.

If fossil fuel companies are allowed to drill our ocean, an oil spill or gas leak could destroy our beaches, communities, local economies, and one of the world’s largest whale migration routes.

Could you imagine heading out for a swim and seeing big oil rigs right off the coast? It’s hard to believe that right now the Government is considering giving PEP11 the go ahead. But it’s true!

We need you to join this fight!

Whether you live in Manly, or on the other side of Australia - PEP11 impacts us all. PEP11 will mean even more fossil fuels are drilled out of the ground and then burned. More than ever, we need to stop using fossil fuels as burning fossil fuels is what is driving the climate crisis! Luckily, Australia is an extremely sunny and windy place, so we have abundance of renewable energy to use instead of gas!

Together, we can get rid of PEP11 for good, but we need your help! Sign the petition, tell your amigos, donate to Surfrider - we must all be in this together.

Surfrider Australia

Ben & Jerry’s are partnering with the epic team at Surfrider Foundation in their fight to stop PEP11 and prevent oil and gas drilling off our coast. Surfrider Foundation is a not-for-profit sea-roots organisation dedicated to the protection of Australia’s waves and beaches through conservation, activism, research and education.

Passionate about protecting oceans, waves and beaches? You’re in good company! Find out more about Surfrider Foundation here.

FAQs

  • Ben & Jerry’s has ambitious science-based greenhouse gas emission targets. We’ve made a commitment, to transition to 100% clean energy by 2025, and we are well on our way! We are very close to achieving our 100% renewable goal, and the gap is being further closed with a heat recovery project installation and other efficiency and fuel replacement projects. At St. Albans a 3rd party owned biodigester is being constructed next to our plant later this year that will use our wastewater waste ice cream as a feedstock for generating electricity and further reducing our carbon footprint. In addition, this week a new biodigester will be installed on the LaRoche farm in Vermont, joining 2 others installed last year in Europe to reduce almost 1/3 or our dairy carbon footprint.

  • We are a dairy company, so this is a good question! We know dairy is our biggest source of emissions, and we this because we count every last bit of the carbon so that we can work to reduce it.

    We work to science based Targets to reduce our emissions, and a big part of this is the introduction of our non-dairy range which means you can have all the chunks and swirls, but know the pint is vegan!

    When it comes to our cows, we are one of few companies focusing on ingredient supply chain emissions, which account for almost 75% of our Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. More than half of our total GHG emissions are from dairy, and we are pursuing strategy focused on the three biggest sources of dairy farm GHGs: enteric emissions from cows, manure management, and feed cropping. We are currently helping to fund research on feed additives and forage mixes that reduce the formation of methane as food is digested in a cow’s stomach, released when they burp.

    A cohort of 30 farmer innovators in our Caring Dairy Program are now in the 2nd year of projects piloting regenerative agriculture methods to reduce their carbon footprint with improved soil health among other outcomes. Similarly, we’re making progress on the carbon footprint from other ingredients such as a carbon insetting project in partnership that will reduce 140,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions over 20 years and an exciting 5-year pilot project pioneering regenerative almond production in California.

    But even in all that, we still have further to go! However, if we shut our company down tomorrow, our planet is still headed over a cliff. That’s why in addition to all the things we’re doing to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, we’re outspoken advocates for policies that drive system change and speed the transition to a fossil fuel free future and we aspire to be an ally to all those demanding urgent action on climate.