Carbon credits are finally poised to play a bigger role in Australia's net zero journey
Over-promises, under-delivery and at times even outright fraud have featured heavily in the 25-year history of carbon offset markets. But things could finally be about to change.
If you look up a synonym for “carbon offset” in the thesaurus, you would not expect to find the words “credible” or “with integrity”. Over-promises, under-delivery and at times even outright fraud have featured heavily in the 25-year history of carbon offset markets.
Controversies range from Coldplay’s ill-fated 2006 attempt to offset the greenhouse gas emissions created through the recording of “Rush of Blood to the Head” by directing fans to purchase carbon credits from a mango forest in India that did not survive, to South Pole’s recent abandonment of the Kariba avoided deforestation project in Zimbabwe that grossly overestimated the actual amount of carbon reduction.
These high-profile failures have left carbon markets with an awkward image problem, which in Australia was highlighted earlier this year with the Chubb review of the Australian Carbon Credit Unit market and the role of its overseer the Clean Energy Regulator.
The review delivered a shopping list of recommendations to improve the regulation of carbon offsets and reduce conflicts of interest owing to the CER’s broad ranging oversight powers, but by and largely determined that the ACCU system was credible. But all of these events combined have tarnished the Australian carbon market’s reputation at precisely the moment it is poised to turn from being voluntary to mandatory under the expanded safeguard mechanism.
