Browsing: Offsets

Buyers and sellers of poor quality carbon offsets might both be breaching the Trade Practices Act, says a new ACCC guide on carbon claims.



And if you haven’t offset all emissions associated with making and using a product, you shouldn’t make unqualified claims about its carbon neutrality, the consumer watchdog says.

The Queensland Budget has massively increased funding for the state EPA.

Tasmania's new Climate Bill would give the government wide-ranging regulation-making powers, including the ability to set sector-based targets.

An international survey of the voluntary carbon market that includes data from Australian and New Zealand firms has found forestry projects have slumped from being the major source of offset credits in 2006, with the mantle now passing to renewable energy projects.



But the voluntary carbon market is booming overall, the report says. And, with more and more companies developing carbon offset strategies, 2008 is likely to see even more rapid growth.

Major WA government initiatives for 2008-09 include developing a policy paper on building carbon pricing into state government decision-making, as well as a paper on carbon offsets and establishment of an offsets registry.



WA Budget papers also show the government will overhaul hazardous waste regulations and re-focus environmental compliance and auditing carried out by the Department of Industry and Resources.

• NSW overhauls waste rules
  
• ACCC tackles company over environmental claims
  
• Greg Hunt calls for carbon offsets commission
  
• Institute of Public Affairs links with university as environmental research 'conduit'

Companies looking to buy credits to reduce or neutralise their carbon footprint need to be clear about the product and rights they are buying, Blake Dawson senior associate Lisa Moore has told a national conference of environmental lawyers.



Meanwhile, Blake Dawson's Meredith Gibbs says a legal concept of causation could be the best way to determine whether greenhouse gas emissions from a project might have an impact on matters of national environmental significance that would trigger EPBC Act assessment.

• Turnbull warns Rudd on permit auction revenue
  
• Australia to accept PCB-contaminated waste from Ok Tedi
  
• Offset providers guide updated
  
• NSW tribunal rejects bid to fold liquid waste levy into Sydney Water charges

Designers of emissions trading schemes seem unable to see the wood products for the trees, NSW government research officer Fabiano Ximenes has told ABARE's Outlook 2008 conference.



Although carbon sink forests are recognised as offsets, no scheme in the world yet recognises carbon stored in timber. Yet research by Ximenes shows much of this carbon remains stored for "at least 100 years". He says Australia's emissions trading scheme should value this major benefit and a new research project could show how to do it.

Premier Paul Lennon yesterday laid out in state parliament a climate change strategy which will see Tasmania become the second Australian state to mandate a 60% emissions cut by 2050 and which will also introduce a state-based carbon offsets scheme.



Meanwhile, the Garnaut Review has put back by one week the release of its emissions trading paper and rescheduled Professor Garnaut's speech on trading.