Making sure your climate change actions count
Date: 7-Oct-2009
Australians are keen to do what they can to cut the amount of greenhouse pollution they are adding to the atmosphere.
Already nearly a million Australians have voluntarily switched to GreenPower and begun to reduce their household emissions by as much as 50 per cent.
But, under the current design of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme, individuals’ voluntary efforts – like buying GreenPower, putting solar panels on roofs and installing insulation – are not being counted.
In fact, under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) voluntary actions are credited to the mandatory national targets required of Australia’s largest polluting companies.
This means the more voluntary action reduces Australia’s total emissions, the less the big polluters’ will have to cut their emissions.
ACF has joined with the Total Environment Centre, CHOICE, WWF Australia, the Alternative Technology Association, the Moreland Energy Foundation and Environment Victoria to try to get this perverse aspect of the emissions trading scheme changed.
The groups are urging politicians in Canberra to ensure voluntary actions to reduce carbon emissions by individuals, organisations and state and local governments are counted as additional to the government’s mandated cap.
This will be achieved if the Government establishes a mechanism to measure how much greenhouse pollution is avoided through voluntary action and adds this amount to the national targets, then reduces the equivalent number of permits available to industry.
Voluntary climate action does genuinely reduce emissions, so it should be recognised and counted.
The actions of concerned Australians should not enable some of Australia’s largest companies to continue business-as-usual polluting.
Everyone has the right – indeed, we should all be encouraged –– to act independently to go beyond Australia’s mandated targets and play our part in tackling climate change.