The Chubb review talks optimistically about ‘carbon credits’, but we wouldn’t need so many if we weren’t building so many new sources of pollution
for a new industrial hub in Darwin harbour that includes gas export infrastructureand have repeatedly refused to introduce any form of moratorium or ban on building the new gas and coalmines that a decarbonising world clearly doesn’t need.highlights perfectly the absurdity of Australia’s climate policy – his review of carbon credits does not make a single mention of the words “coal”, “methane gas”, or even “fossil fuels”.
The idea that Australia’s role in helping the world tackle climate change is to export more coal and gas is as ridiculous as it is widely held. Chubb isn’t the first prominent Australian to shy away from a fight with our fossil fuel industry, and he won’t be the last. But the longer such a fight is avoided, the more harm we will do to our climate and our economy.The main role of carbon credits is not to reduce global temperatures, but to reduce the political heat about climate change policies.
Carbon credits allow the Albanese government to simultaneously tell inner-city voters that they are committed to ambitious climate action and the international fossil fuel industry that Australia remains an attractive place to invest.
In order for the safeguard mechanism to be reformed, it will need support from the Greens and some of the Senate crossbenchers. It would make policy and political sense for those senators to simply rule out the use of the dodgy carbon credits that continue to circulate in the Australian market, especially because the safeguard mechanism won’t, as it is currently proposed, safeguard us from new gas and coalmines.
The Chubb review might have ignored the issue of fossil fuel expansion, but the scientists, public, and the key votes in the Senate are unlikely to be so wilfully blind.
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