Andrew Macintosh, the former Chair of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee, has described Australia’s carbon offset market and the Australian Carbon Credit Unit scheme as a ‘rort’.

Before leaving his post on the committee, Macintosh had tried to convince the Federal Government’s Clean Energy Regulator that their approach towards giving businesses carbon credits for every tonne of greenhouse gases that have been avoided or captured lacks integrity.

"I'm a big believer in these schemes and the ability to use offsets to help cut emissions and to help lower the cost of doing so but what we're seeing is a real inability to operate schemes like this with high integrity," he says in an interview with the ABC.

"An environmental market without integrity is not an environmental market, it’s a rort. And I feel that Australia's carbon market is just that – it's degenerated to become a rort."

"This is little more than a wealth transfer. People can think about it as welfare payments for the undeserving."

The Clean Energy Regulator says the claims are false. Emissions Reduction Minister, Angus Taylor, believes the scheme is doing its job as intended.

"It's seen as one of the best crediting schemes in the world. We've seen companies around Australia wanting access to more credits as part of their emissions reduction programs.

"I think the facts are very clear. When you have people who are prepared to pay 10 times more for credits in Australia, when you see and I hear regularly around the world, people looking at ACCUs, the credits that are created under the Emissions Reduction Fund, and the regard with which they are held, I have great confidence in the strength of this program."

Macintosh refutes this claim, arguing that the vast majority of credits that have been handed out have been seldom done with integrity.

"I'm not saying all credits are devoid of integrity, but it appears from the analysis we've done, and the evidence we have seen, that somewhere in the order of 70 to 80 percent of the credits that have been issued are markedly low in integrity."

"Payments are being made to people to not chop down forests that were never going to be chopped down, to grow forests that are already there, to grow forests in places that will never sustain permanent forests."

Three main schemes are typically awarded credits as part of the incentive program. These are human-induced forest regeneration, avoided deforestation and a landfill gas scheme that gives credits for those that limit methane emissions. Macintosh is concerned about each of these methods, in particular the regeneration of forest by human hand.

Macintosh was replaced by a former coal, oil and gas lobbyist David Byers when he left to join the Royal Commission into Bushfires. The former CEO of oil and gas industry lobby APPEA says in an ABC interview that Macintosh’s claims are unfounded.

"We've investigated those claims quite thoroughly. We've done a full statistical study of that, which did show that the (human-induced regeneration) projects were significantly increasing regrowth independent of climatic factors and rainfall."

The statistical study Byers speaks of indicates approximately 13 percent of projects contained existing forest cover which was used to help store carbon, which should have been excluded under program regulations.

"The advice the clean energy regulator gives, the advice it receives is based on a broad range of sources. That's as it should be. And they have been enormously successful,” says Taylor on ABC television program, 7:30.

"Look at the outcomes of 100 million tonnes of abatement delivered, over 200 million contracted, 70 million in the last year alone. Well-regarded credits that are well priced in the market significantly higher than credits in other countries. These are the outcomes that matter.”

Macintosh says his efforts to call the government out on their faults may come at a personal cost in the future. He calls on the government to be transparent for the betterment of the public, to ensure businesses are held accountable for emissions reduction targets as the country moves towards net zero by 2050.

"If low quality carbon credits are used to offset emissions from large polluters, that's actually making the situation worse. It's actually resulting in increased emissions because we get the increase in emissions from the large polluters, but we don't get the offsetting reduction.

"The government, whatever colour it is, needs to take immediate action to shut down the problematic methods and to make reforms to ensure that low integrity projects stop receiving carbon credits.

"We also need to have greater transparency. The public can't have confidence in a market like this, where there's so little information that's made publicly available. So let in the light, let people see what's actually going on.”

 

Images: Energy Transition Hub, Wollondilly Shire Council