Latest reports suggest that the Albanese government’s signature climate bill targeting big polluters is a step closer to passing after a deal with the Greens including an absolute cap on emissions.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, announced the deal on the safeguard mechanism bill on Monday, taking credit for “a big hit on coal and gas” that could effectively block half of 116 proposed new fossil fuel projects.
Bandt was quoted as saying the deal puts “significant hurdles” in the way of new projects including the development of the vast Beetaloo gas basin in the Northern Territory, with up to $1bn a year in costs to offset its emissions enough to “derail” the business case for the project.
The government believes the safeguard mechanism deal puts it on track to achieve its emissions reduction target of 43% by 2030. It will be opposed by the Coalition, which has attempted to link steps to curb emissions from new coal and gas projects to price rises despite most of the developments being for export.
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Chris Bowen, the climate change and energy minister played down the Greens’ claims by noting that the deal was still in “keeping with our election mandate” not to ban new fossil fuel projects while also achieving its aim of reducing absolute emissions.
According to reports, the safeguard bill, which requires big industrial emitters to reduce emissions intensity by 4.9% a year to achieve 205m tonnes of greenhouse gas reduction by 2030, is set to pass the House of Representatives on Monday. The bill will go to the Senate this week, where the Jacqui Lambie Network is likely to give Labor the votes to pass it.
While the Independent senator David Pocock welcomed the proposed changes, he said that he still had “concerns about the role of offsets”. The centrepiece of the Labor-Greens deal is a cap of 1,233m tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030, effectively imposing a declining annual limit on absolute emissions of about 140m tonnes.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
