Australia debates use of offsets

Reform of scheme to cut industry emissions will see new rules on the use of both domestic and international offsets

The extent to which carbon offsets are used to cut the emissions of Australia’s industry is being strongly debated during consultations on a reformed scheme. The Safeguard Mechanism was introduced in 2016 by the previous Coalition government as the nation’s key tool to cut emissions from industry. The mechanism sets baseline levels of emissions for individual facilities. Facilities must stay below those levels or buy offsets to compensate for any emissions above the baselines. Those offsets can either be Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated by domestic emissions reductions schemes, or offsets generated by international schemes such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and for