24 November 2009

Some voluntary action to be counted in proposed CPRS changes

Greenfleet welcomes the recent announcement from the federal government regarding proposed amendments to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in relation to acknowledging voluntary action by households...

• "The Government will ensure the CPRS takes into account voluntary action by households.  Voluntary action by households will now allow Australia to go beyond our 2020 emissions reduction target. In addition, the CPRS will be amended to ensure that all existing and future purchases of GreenPower will be counted, and allow Australia to go beyond our 2020 national targets."

This is definitely a step in the right direction, however we still believe that all voluntary action should be counted. Voluntary abatement undertaken by businesses, government and non-government organisations that are not liable under the Scheme, should all be used to reduce the amount of carbon pollution permits available to liable big emitters, to ensure there is a real reduction in carbon pollution.

Greenfleet intends to "opt-in" to the CPRS its forests established for voluntary action and then retire any permits generated to ensure that these permits do not increase the allocation available to big polluters.