Australia's cheapest emissions reductions are being bought, not made

Australia's cheapest emissions reductions are being bought rather than made, according to a new report from IEEFA Australia, and the numbers make the point clearly. Capturing most of the methane that leaks from coal mines and gas fields would cost less than A$30 a tonne, while an Australian carbon credit sells for around A$38.

The "Not so hard to abate" report sets out six measures that are proven and ready today: energy efficiency, methane capture, electric mine fleets, renewables at remote mines, industrial heat pumps and lower-clinker cement. Most of them pay for themselves. Yet facilities covered by the Safeguard Mechanism reduced their emissions by only 0.4%, and oil and gas producers used 82% more carbon credits in a single year.

Carbon3 sees a practical way to close that gap. When the customers of Australian industry, such as builders, steelmakers and gas importers, help fund these projects, the producer makes the reduction on site and the customer receives a verified inset credit for a real reduction in its own supply chain. That is not an offset and not a way around the Safeguard Mechanism, and every tonne is counted only once.