Moreland Energy Foundation

The last month has been a roller-coaster ride for the Federal Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

In early November the Government and the Opposition agreed on a number of amendments to the CPRS in an attempt to get the legislation through the Senate. Although that agreement fell apart when Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Tony Abbot as the Opposition Leader, and the Senate refused to pass the amended laws, the Government has now adopted those amendments as part of its policy position.

Most of the amendments are about greater compensation to households and big polluters, and permanently excluding agriculture from the Scheme.

However, in a welcome move, changes were made to ensure that voluntary actions by individuals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions will be taken into account when setting scheme caps, and hence will lead to actual reductions in emissions. Equally, all GreenPower purchases will now be considered, not just those beyond a 2009 baseline.

The details about how this would be delivered are still uncertain, and MEFL is concerned that there could be a delay of many years between when voluntary emissions reductions take place and when the emissions cap is reduced.

The Government has vowed to reintroduce the legislation in February and there’s little hope that the laws will be passed as is. Whatever happens, MEFL will continue to work with other environment groups to ensure that voluntary action by communities is recognised as a vital part of Australia’s efforts to tackle climate change.

Read our recent media release on the CPRS.

MEFL has joined with a number of other community organisations - the Total Environment Centre, CHOICE, WWF Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Alternative Technology Association, and Environment Victoria - in a campaign to fix a serious flaw in the federal government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Specifically, MEFL has concerns with the failure of the proposed scheme to recognise the additional action undertaken by individuals to reduce the nation's emissions.

Under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) voluntary actions merely count towards the required targets, subsidising the big polluters' activities and limiting our national climate change efforts. The joint campaign calls for the voluntary actions that individuals, organisations, state and local governments choose to make to reduce carbon emissions be counted as additional to government-mandated caps.

A series of letters have been sent to the Prime minister, Climate Change Minister and a range of senior ministers with a relevant role in the CPRS legislation, highlighting the issue and bringing their attention to a Joint Statement and Briefing Paper put together by the coalition of organisations (see below). In addition, a concerted media campaign will be launched in the lead up to the legislation being debated in Federal Parliament.

For a full understanding of the issue and an outline of a proposed solution, download the Briefing Paper.

And to understand the position of the coalition of community groups, read the Joint Statement

Concerns around the real impact individuals can make by acting to reduce their greenhouse pollution have been getting a lot of attention recently in light of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

Specifically, there has been a strong focus in the media because, under the current CPRS proposal, once the Government sets an emissions target, individuals undertaking voluntary action such as installing solar power, reducing their energy consumption and buying GreenPower will have no impact on the nation's overall emissions, as it simply frees up permits for other polluters to use. As a result, the same amount of gas will be going into the atmosphere and therefore there will be no net reduction in greenhouse pollution. Whilst this may be partially correct, it is only one aspect of the picture.

The Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET) and Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) Bills are expected to be put to a vote during the August sitting of Federal Parliament. It is particularly important that the RET legislation is passed as quickly as possible given that the investment community and renewable energy industry are waiting for a price signal to invest in renewable energy projects.

However as representatives of communities and individuals seeking to make a positive difference regarding the issue of climate change, Environment Victoria (EV), the Moreland Energy Foundation (MEFL) and the Alternative Technology Association (ATA) are concerned by a number of flaws and missed opportunities in the current design of both the RET and the CPRS that we would like to see rectified before the Bills come to a vote in the August sittings.

To learn more download Improving the RET & CPRS – Suggested Amendments to Draft Legislation.

The recent changes to the proposed CPRS legislation is a mixed bag for the environment - unfortunately it is significantly more bad than good. MEFL welcomes the target increase to a maximum 25% emissions reduction by 2020, however notes that the conditions the Government has placed on this target are very onerous and unlikely to be met, and points out that 25% should be the absolute lower limit of Australia's emissions reduction targets, irrespective of international movements.

MEFL is concerned about the one-year delay in the introduction of the scheme, the $10 fixed pollution permit price for the first 12 months (effectively a further 12 months delay), and the increase in free permits to big polluters.

Finally, the changes do little to address MEFL's concerns about the lack of recognition for individual's taking action to reduce their personal emissions - the measures to only account for GreenPower purchases above a 2009 baseline means that there is no incentive for those currently purchasing GreenPower to continue, as their purchases won't affect Australia's emissions, hence almost guaranteeing a collapse of GreenPower and creating little likelihood of the 2009 baseline being exceeded. Further, the establishment of the Energy Efficiency Savings Pledge Fund does little to help households. Iin short, they are asking individuals to take action to reduce their emissions and then pay to have that action recognised and those emissions removed from the system - an absurd system that does nothing to address the concerns of those calling for individuals' emissions reduction activities to be recognised by the removal of pollution permits from circulation under the CPRS.