Climate Commission tells Govt to strangle carbon credit stockpile

Posted: 13 Mar 2024

The Climate Change Commission has recommended a major reduction in the number of Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) units auctioned off by the Government in the coming years, to fight a growing stockpile of carbon credits from forestry.

In its annual advice on settings for the country’s carbon market, the commission proposed only one significant change. Price settings and the number of units available for industrial subsidies and cost containment purposes were largely unchanged from current regulations.

The big recommendation came in how many units should be auctioned off by the Government. Over the next four years, current settings would see nearly 40 million units available for auction – each one corresponding to a tonne of greenhouse gas pollution. Under the commission’s proposed settings, that number drops to under 20 million units.

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