New carbon credit powers will chill market investment, regulator warns
Proposed reforms would let the environment minister stop projects using flawed carbon credit methods.
A Senate inquiry this week examined changes to Australia's carbon credit scheme. The proposed reforms would give the environment minister power to stop projects using flawed methods.
The reforms would strengthen the Clean Energy Regulator and tighten audits. The emissions committee chair warned new ministerial powers could 'send chills through the market'.
This could hurt business confidence. Academics and environmental groups said the reforms don't go far enough.
Academic researchers criticized revegetation projects as making little progress. They called them 'equivalent to regrowing forests on the moon.'
Some carbon credit projects have generated credits even though they failed to meet forestry targets. Environment groups call carbon credits 'an accounting trick' that lets companies avoid making real cuts.
The regulator says projects which don't deliver are not credited.
Why it mattersWhether climate targets rest on real cuts or accounting tricks depends on how well carbon credits work.
AustraliaThe scheme is how Australia claims emissions cuts; flawed credits undermine the nation's climate commitments.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 4 h ago
