‘Pass safeguard, cut carbon faster’, says Kerry Schott

Former Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott warns that delaying the safeguard mechanism will make decarbonisation for heavy polluters ‘even more difficult to reach’.

Former Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott. Picture: Ryan Osland

Former Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott is pushing for a 70 per cent emissions reduction target by 2035 and warns that delaying the safeguard mechanism will make decarbonisation for heavy polluters “even more difficult to reach”.

The Carbon Market Institute chair will say Labor’s safeguard mechanism – which forces the nation’s 215 biggest-emitting facilities to slash emissions by nearly 5 per cent per year out to 2030 – is a “really important policy measure” that ensures Australia achieves its 43 per cent 2030 emissions-reduction target.

In a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday, Dr Schott will urge the parliament to ­support the mechanism ahead of its planned start on July 1.

“The next fortnight determines whether the safeguard mechanism can be set up in time. If this date is delayed by even a year, the emissions-reduction ­targets of the facilities with the heaviest pollution become even more difficult to reach,” Dr Schott will say.

“The question is whether parliament will draw on the remarkable collaboration of 2011. This year managed the passage of the … carbon pricing mechanism, the birth of institutions and policies like ARENA, the CEFC and Carbon Farming legislation, and Offset Integrity Standards.

“The alternative, over a decade later, is another episode of division and delay that has been previously the hallmark of Australian climate policy.”

The Australian understands Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is close to brokering a deal with the Greens and two crossbenchers to push the safeguard mechanism crediting legislation through parliament next week.

Dr Schott will say that given recent climate-related events, “there will be a call for much faster and stronger action beyond our current 2030 ambitions”.

“Similar advice from climate scientists certainly supports a move to more ambitious requirements for national commitments, including ours. In this context, setting a future federal target of around a 70 per cent reduction by 2035 should be encouraged,” she will say.

“It may appear ambitious but progress in Victoria and NSW suggest it is possible; and science suggests that a change of this magnitude is needed. Personally, I do think Australia must set a 2035 target of at least a 70 per cent reduction below 2005 levels.”

Dr Schott – who wants greater carbon credit market integrity and supports incentives for ­facilities to move faster and cut emissions deeper than required – says a 70 per cent target “is in line with where other countries are ­focused and is the minimum needed to make climate change even remotely manageable”.

With the Albanese government bidding to host the UN Climate Change conference in 2026 with Pacific nations, Dr Schott will say Australia’s emissions-­reduction policies, including the safeguard mechanism, will be “noted internationally”.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said while his preference was to pass laws that capped pollution on coal and gas, he was open to “looking at any proposals” from the government.

“Aluminium, steel, glass, cement all have a future in Australia. Coal and gas do not,” Mr Bandt said on Monday.

“We want to see policies that support sunrise industries and get them powered by renewable energy so that we have something to sell the rest of the world in a zero-carbon economy.”

Independent senator David Pocock said amendments that strengthened the aim of the safeguard mechanism were needed.