The Chubb Review into Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) has failed to address the serious concerns about the integrity of a key carbon offset method raised by leading scientists, says Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen today released the findings of the review and the Federal Government's response, which includes an in-principle agreement to adopt all recommendations.
Glenn Walker, Head of Advocacy and Strategy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said that while the review has recommended some welcome reforms to the governance and transparency of ACCUs, it overlooked serious concerns and evidence from leading scientists and experts showing that the key ACCU method for Human-Induced Regeneration was not actually delivering real carbon abatement.1
"Big polluting corporations, including coal and gas companies buy carbon offsets to avoid and delay actually reducing or removing harmful greenhouse gas emissions in their own operations," he said.
"The Chubb Review into carbon offsetting has failed to address the scam of a key ACCU method. Until this sham is removed from the system or fundamentally overhauled, emissions won't actually be going down.
"Without this necessary system overhaul, the integrity of the proposed Safeguard Mechanism will also come into serious question. The Federal Government is currently proposing unfettered use of scam carbon offsets under this scheme, which will simply enable big polluters to keep polluting.
"With the impending release of the Safeguard Mechanism, it's imperative that the Federal Government constrain the use of ACCUs for big polluting companies."
