Up to 80 per cent of the carbon credits issued by Australia’s clean energy regulator are flawed, leaving buyers holding “sham” assets that have failed to reduce the nation’s carbon burden, says Andrew Macintosh, the Abbott government’s former chair of a key market oversight integrity committee.

In a scathing assessment, Professor Macintosh – who is director of research at the ANU Law School – called for the break-up of the Clean Energy Regulator to reduce its power and spread its functions to other agencies, as well as the immediate repeal of “low integrity methods” for recognising carbon credits, also known as Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).