News

The Climate Change Authority today released a paper for consultation on its review of the Carbon Farming Initiative legislation, which governs the Emissions Reduction Fund.

The Chair of the Climate Change Authority, Dr Wendy Craik said: “The Authority is required to review the CFI legislation and the Emissions Reduction Fund every three years. The ERF has been in place for a while now so it’s a good opportunity to do a stock-take and see how it’s working."

The Authority looked at the role the ERF could play in helping to meet Australia’s Paris targets in its 2016 Special Review on Australia’s climate goals and policies and remains of the view that those findings are still current.

“Basically we said that the ERF should keep going until other emissions reduction policies like an Emissions Intensity Scheme or a Clean Energy Target and vehicle emissions standards are put in place.”

“The Authority does see a role into the future for the sort of offset crediting arrangements the ERF uses for the land sector.” Dr Craik said.

The key question for the Authority in this review is whether the ERF is being well administered and achieving its objectives.

Offsets need a clear and robust set of rules if they are to achieve genuine environmental outcomes but excessively restrictive rules and regulations can act as a barrier to participation.

The Authority’s CFI legislation review will examine whether current policy settings for the ERF have struck the right balance between the goals of market participation, administrative efficiency and environmental integrity.

The Authority is keen to understand if rules and processes for the ERF are working well for scheme participants and whether the scheme administrator, the Clean Energy Regulator, has enough of the right tools for the job of ensuring compliance with the scheme.

The Authority encourages submissions from individuals and organisations with an interest in the ERF and emissions reduction policy by 29 September 2017. Submissions on this paper will inform the Authority’s final review report on the ERF, which is due by 31 December 2017.

More information on the consultation is available here. 

Date: Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Media contact

Name: Aileen Muldoon

Agency: Climate Change Authority

Contact number: 0419 112 503

Next year Australia will be called upon to present its climate change credentials and policy to the world at the global climate conference in Paris.

The conference will seek to reach agreement on concerted and collective action beyond 2020 consistent with keeping global average warming below 2°C, compared with pre-industrial levels. Preparations are now underway for this conference and some countries are expected to indicate their goals for climate action beyond 2020 by April 2015.

As an intended contribution to Australia’s preparations for the Paris conference and the meetings leading up to it, the Climate Change Authority has today released the paper entitled International climate change: priorities for the next agreement.

The Paris conference follows the last comparable conference held in Copenhagen in 2009. Mr Fraser noted the forthcoming conference was likely to be held in rather more favourable circumstances than the last, which coincided with the early onset of the global financial crisis.

He also believed that since Copenhagen mainstream climate scientists had continued to strengthen their earlier findings on the links between human-induced increases in greenhouse gas emissions and the rise in average global temperatures.

The paper discusses several of the core priority issues which are expected to be considered in the meetings. These issues include:

• The collective goal to limit global warming to 2°C or below
• Post 2020 international emissions reduction targets for major emitting countries
• The common framework for tracking emissions and progress towards targets
• Greater clarity on the role the international trade in emission units will play in meeting targets
• Regular reviews of collective and individual efforts to reduce emissions

Effective collective action to contain global warming is as much in Australia’s interests as it is for other countries. Australia has played an active role at past international negotiations and, as a wealthy developed country and a high per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, it will be expected to carry a fair share of the post 2020 emissions reductions.

Background note

The Climate Change Authority is an independent statutory body established in 2012 to provide expert and balanced advice on climate change policy issues (including Australia’s emission reductions goals). It comprises members with considerable expertise in relevant disciplines, including climate science and economic policy, and is backed by an experienced and independent secretariat. The Government has introduced a Bill to abolish the Authority; that Bill is still before the Parliament.

Read the report on International climate action: priorities for the next agreement