Greens strike a deal to support carbon credits for forest protection

The Greens will not side with the Nationals to kill off a scheme that will allow state governments to earn carbon credits for protecting public forests, defying intense lobbying from former leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne.

The NSW government has said creating the Great Koala National Park as currently proposed is conditional on its ability to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) under a method it proposed called Improvement Native Forest Management (INFM).

The NSW Greens had urged their federal colleagues to allow the method to stand because it could be a pathway to end native forest logging, and they fear the alternative with a timber-industry ACCU method that would allow logging to continue.

Greens leader Larissa Waters said the party had won significant concessions to improve the deal for the environment, and it would continue to fight for better climate policy

“After careful consideration of complex regulation, the Greens have secured important new protections for native forests, including a legal precedent to stop coal and gas using offsets, significantly reduce logging, and immediately protect forests,” Waters said.

“The Greens party room has resolved to support the improved INFM because forest and habitat is critical to prevent endangered species from extinction as well as the climate.

“However, we do not support Labor’s system of accounting tricks instead of pollution reduction, which is why we also announce today that we will move to significantly increase the cost of polluting by opposing 40 per cent of the carbon-credit market.”

The negotiated changes include that the NSW government’s commitment not to sell the carbon credits to coal and gas companies will be reflected in federal law, an increase in the required reduction of logging in the area surrounding the protected forest, and a tightening of the definition of plantations.

More to come

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Caitlin Fitzsimmons is the environment and climate reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the social affairs reporter and the Money editor.Connect via email.AdvertisementAdvertisement