Federal Climate Action program fallout an own goal for net zero, says GreenCollar

Dozens of companies have unnecessarily abandoned the federal government’s Climate Active scheme over fears of being unfairly tarnished with greenwashing claims, a major carbon player says.

Pollination investment and advisory group global co-founder and senior partner Martijn Wilder.

One of Australia’s biggest carbon farmers says a key plank of the nation’s net-zero push has been diluted as businesses grow uneasy over being tarnished with greenwashing accusations connected to carbon offset programs.

Australia’s largest developer of carbon market projects, GreenCollar, broke ranks with the industry on Monday to accuse green activists of hijacking the government’s carbon emissions program called Climate Active as part of an anti-fossil fuels agenda.

One of GreenCollar’s major competitors, Climate Friendly, said polluters that were trying to cut their emissions through decarbonisation and also participate in carbon schemes were backing away from programs like Climate Active.

“There’s been a big focus that it’s decarbonisation or offset. And there’s undue attention on businesses that are trying to do both, and so they’re stepping away from things like public schemes,” Climate Friendly co-chief executive Skye Glenday said.

Climate Friendly co-chief executive Skye Glenday. Picture: Jonathan Cami

“I don’t think that’s conducive to scaling up accelerated action. And we desperately need both. You need a decarbonisation strategy, and you need to offset transitional emissions and emissions you can’t abate. It’s putting pressure on businesses to step away from really critical schemes.”

Pressure is now growing on the federal government to scrap or heavily reform the program after dozens of big businesses walked away.

GreenCollar co-founder James Schultz said the government program had become too risky for businesses, with activist groups tarring the carbon credit scheme as a greenwashing front for fossil fuel producers.

Advisory business Pollination, backed by ANZ, said it was the wrong move to junk the Climate Active scheme, arguing the focus should be on modernising and tweaking the existing program.

“We need to have everything we can to reduce emissions. There are really high-quality projects that actually can reduce emissions,” Pollination founder Martijn Wilder said.

“Groups shouldn’t just be running around saying don’t use offsets. Let’s put our energy into finding solutions rather than destroying the scheme. That is the GreenCollar view and it’s probably my view as well.”

GreenCollar said carbon markets remained the right mechanism to address climate change and urged a compromise to ensure hard work was not wasted.

The rift over carbon credits, bought by polluters to offset their emissions, threatens to derail a key plank of Labor’s bid to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic said Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 will fail partly because the government is slowing the generation of carbon offsets needed.

GreenCollar co-founder James Schultz.

MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic.

“Because of uninformed pressure from activists, key methods for carbon credits have been halted, with replacement methods under development continually delayed,” Mr Kavonic writes in The Australian. “Our carbon market has become the biggest driver of conservation of Australian biodiversity and habitat during the past decade, along with returning more money to farmers across the nation. Yet green activists attack it just because the fossil fuel industry is one participant in the market.”

The Climate Change Auth­ority is also weeks from finalising its advice on an upgraded 2035 emissions-­reduction target.

More than 100 companies had already left Climate Active in the past 18 months. The program offers certificates to those engaged in carbon abatement, and allows users to purchase carbon credits to offset their emissions with the aim of hitting net-zero targets.

Mr Kavonic said green activists are effectively campaigning against planting trees.

“And Labor is allowing these activists to influence policy. Australia is now pursuing a delusional mix of policies that will result in economic and environmental decline: reduce coal and gas investment while also making it harder to build the needed grid infrastructure to roll out renewables, alongside making it harder to generate carbon offsets to keep manufacturing going amid rising safeguard mechanism obligations,” Mr Kavonic said.

Assistant Energy Minister Josh Wilson. Picture: Gary Ramage

Assistant Energy Minister Josh Wilson this week said the government recognised the industry wanted certainty on Climate Active reforms.

Mr Wilson has held a series of meetings with organisations such as the Carbon Market Institute, assuring the industry that there were no plans to dismantle Climate Active.

Parents for Climate, a registered charity, last week successfully argued that EnergyAustralia’s promotion of its Go Neutral product gave consumers the impression they were meaningfully reducing emissions.

In ­reality, the program relied on international carbon credits – some of which have been heavily criticised for questionable effectiveness in abating carbon pollution. EnergyAustralia settled the case and said there was legitimate public concern about the ­efficacy of these programs including Climate Active, a voluntary initiative encouraging business to measure and offset emissions.