CCWA Execute Director Matt Roberts said the organisation’s submission into the Federal Government’s recent consultation on the Safeguard Mechanism makes clear it is a failing policy that does not reduce emissions or provide a clear mechanism for phasing out fossil fuels. 

“The Safeguard Mechanism does not go far enough in forcing WA’s big industrial polluters to do their part and reduce emissions,” Mr Roberts said. 

“Emitters can buy and surrender carbon instead of cutting actual on-site pollution. The most obvious way for companies to reduce their emissions is by on-site abatement — but this mechanism doesn’t incentivise that. 

“Over the past 12-month reporting period, 56 facilities in WA exceeded their emissions baseline, and 35 WA facilities increased their emissions. 

“Simply put, the Safeguard Mechanism is not reducing emissions.  What kind of emissions reduction policy is that? It’s the kind that’s designed to allow big polluters to keep polluting, not to protect Australia's environment 

“The scheme allows total industrial pollution to look ‘net-reduced’ on paper while actual physical emissions continue to rise or remain at business-as-usual levels. 

“Loopholes in the Safeguard Mechanism laws mean massive new gas export projects like Woodside's Browse proposal at Scott Reef can claim to be part of existing facilities, avoiding adequate scrutiny and shirking obligations to reduce emissions. 

“Australia’s current policy settings do not have us on track to meet our climate targets; our policies must match our ambitions. 

“At the end of the day, if it wants to reduce Australia’s emissions, the Federal Government must stop approving new fossil fuel projects.” 

CCWA’s submission follows the publication of a new report by climate and energy policy researcher Tim Baxter of Naru Research, entitled ‘Everything new is old again: Woodside’s Browse Gas project under our climate pollution laws’. 

The research finds that Australia’s climate pollution laws would not manage most of the climate pollution from Woodside’s Browse project, the largest new fossil fuel proposal in Australia. 

Mr Baxter said: “To lock in support for its major reforms to Australia’s climate pollution laws in 2023, the Federal Government agreed that new fossil fuel projects would be held to the very highest emissions standards in the world. This promise has been broken.  

“The rules designed to rein in emissions from these projects simply don’t do what’s necessary to ensure that the promise is kept. 

“Woodside’s Browse gas project won’t start up until well into next decade. However, under the laws it can avoid being held to higher standards by pretending that it always existed and is part of an LNG terminal that is further away than Paris is from Berlin.  

“It beggars belief that loopholes this large have been left in the laws.” 

ENDS 

Media contact: John Cooke – 0433 679 780