Australian Conservation Foundation and Climate Council say Government’s climate action agenda ‘untenable’

The Federal Government’s climate action agenda is “increasingly untenable”, a peak green group has warned, as new modelling shows future coal and gas projects could blow a major hole in Labor’s signature emissions reduction plan.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and Climate Council are using new research to pressure the Government to redesign its planned overhaul of the so-called safeguard mechanism.

The Government is fighting to win support for the changes, which are aimed at forcing the nation’s biggest polluters to slash their carbon footprints.

The plan is critical to Labor’s hopes of meeting its target of cutting emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and hitting net zero by 2050.

But it is facing an uphill task as Federal Parliament prepares to debate safeguards legislation this week.

The Coalition’s refusal to back the plan means the Government will need the votes of the Greens and two crossbenchers to get it through the Upper House.

The Greens continue to demand a ban on new coal and gas projects in exchange for their support — a deal Labor has flatly rejected.

Independent senator David Pocock is also refusing to guarantee his support, telling ABC radio on Monday morning that he has a “number of concerns” about the plan.

The former Wallabies captain is adamant that companies should not be allowed to purchase unlimited carbon offsets in order to meet their emissions reduction obligations.

A Parliamentary inquiry last week heard that Inpex, the company behind the Ichthys LNG project, could be spending almost $200 million per year on offsets because it doesn’t think it can cut emissions fast enough on its own.

Ahead of debate in the Federal Parliament this week, the two green groups have published modelling underlining the risks new coal and gas projects pose to the Government’s plan.

The modelling shows that pollution from just 16 proposed projects, including Woodside’s Scarborough gas development, equates to a quarter of the entire emissions cuts that Labor hopes to achieve through the safeguard mechanism this decade.

Australian Conservation Foundation climate change program director Gavan McFadzean said the Government’s support for new fossil fuel projects was “untenable” with its climate targets.

“I think one of the things, in the bigger picture, that this report highlights is the Government’s climate change platform is increasingly untenable,” Mr McFadzean told reporters in Canberra.

The two groups are concerned that the entry of new fossil fuel projects will force industries which are “essential” to decarbonising Australia’s economy, such as steel, cement and aluminium, to take on a greater share of the emissions reduction task.

Mr McFadzean wants the legislation to pass and the new regime to start on July 1, but not before “significant improvements” are agreed to.

This includes placing a hard cap on total emissions allowed under the scheme and protecting it through legislation.

The green groups’ modelling was conducted by RepuTex, the same consultants which Labor used to come up with the 43 per cent 2030 target it took to the election and legislated in Federal Parliament last year.