Coalition climate review 'a travesty' as Australia set to increase emissions

Labor and the Greens have blasted new annual emissions projections, and the Turnbull government’s review of its climate policies, characterising the Coalition’s action on climate change as woefully inadequate.

In the shadow of a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, the government released a long-anticipated review of its climate policies that foreshadows loosening the current safeguard mechanism that sets limits on pollution.

At the same time, the government released official emissions data projecting that Australia will increase its emissions all the way to 2030 and beyond.

“When you look at those numbers you really do start to understand why [the government] would sneak them out, because they are a shocking set of numbers,” the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, said.

Butler also blasted the permissive signal on the safeguards mechanism in the climate policy review, saying the government wanted to “make it easier for bigger polluters to start to increase their pollution levels, not to get them down”.

The criticism was echoed by the Greens’ climate spokesman, Adam Bandt, who noted the government wanted to weaken its “flawed” emissions reduction fund by “shifting the goalposts and allowing companies’ pollution baselines to be increased to allow them to be more polluting”.

“The data is devastating and the policy review is a travesty,” Bandt said. “Pollution is going up, we won’t meet even our paltry Paris targets and the government’s only plan is to make matters worse by allowing companies to buy dodgy permits from pig farms in China instead of cutting Australia’s emissions.”

The review of climate policies by the Department of Environment and Energy signals the Turnbull government will keep the emissions reduction fund, the centrepiece of Tony Abbott’s Direct Action policy, but it doesn’t quantify the cost of rolling it over.

The government will have to make a decision in the May budget about how much to allocate to the fund, which currently sees taxpayers pay for carbon abatement rather than big polluters. The fund started at $2.55bn and about $260m remains in the fund now.

While some climate policy experts had thought the government might use the review to toughen the existing safeguards mechanism in order to curb emissions growth, the climate policy review goes in the opposite direction, suggesting baselines could “increase with production, supporting business growth”.

The safeguards mechanism sets emissions “baselines”, or limits, for big polluters. The new climate review points clearly to loosening it, to ensure business does not face restraints on growth, with changes to be implemented in the 2018-19 compliance year, in consultation with industry.

It says the mechanism needs to be “fairer and simpler” and it says changes are required to “address the risk of potential constraints on business growth raised by a number of stakeholders through the review”.

Some key stakeholders expressed disappointment with the climate review. The Investor Group on Climate Change said the government had failed to deliver a plan to manage climate risk and provide investment certainty.

“Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising in all sectors of the economy,” the group’s chief executive, Emma Herd, said. “This is creating financial risks for investors.

“The 2017 climate change policy review, while noting progress in some areas, fails to deliver a comprehensive national decarbonisation plan for the Australian economy.

“The question remains – what is the plan for tackling Australia’s rising greenhouse gas emissions?

“Business is looking for a plan on how Australia is going to tackle climate change. Instead they got last year’s greatest hits album for summer.”

The Australian Conservation Foundation was scathing. The ACF’s CEO, Kelly O’Shanassy, said climate pollution had risen by 3.7% since the repeal of the carbon price.

“The Australian community is tired of the delay and spin from Canberra,” O’Shanassy said. “It is time for the excuses to end and for a comprehensive national plan to be put in place to cut climate pollution and accelerate the transition to clean energy.”

As well as opening the door for businesses to boost their emissions, the new climate policy review also flags the use of international permits to help Australia meet its international emissions reductions commitments – a practice Tony Abbott ruled out when he was prime minister.

Business welcomed that shift. “Practical measures such as support for international permits alongside a plan to develop a long-term, whole of economy emissions reduction strategy will provide the flexibility and capacity for Australian businesses to participate in what is fundamentally a global issue,” the CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, said.

The Australian Industry Group’s CEO, Innes Willox, expressed a similar view.

“The announcement of the government’s in-principle decision to allow the use of high-quality international emissions offsets, credits and allowances to help meet our contribution to global emission reduction is a major advance,” he said.

“There is simply no reason to waste efforts on higher-cost domestic abatement options when credible, high-quality and less expensive alternatives are available abroad.”

Willox also welcomed the signal on the safeguards mechanism. “The government’s announcement of the update to the safeguard mechanism is a second important step forward,” he said.

“It will allow a number of baseline anomalies that are already impacting some facilities to be addressed and it will facilitate the recognition and correction of any further anomalies that emerge.

“Close and careful consultation with industry and the broader community will be needed to avoid unintended consequences.”