Australia’s biggest polluters have relied heavily on carbon credits to offset their climate footprint and made only small cuts to actual emissions, according to data released on Tuesday, in a major test of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s green reforms.
More than 200 facilities covered under the Safeguard Mechanism trimmed their emissions by 2.7 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or 1.9%, to 136 million tons for the year through June 2024. Carbon credits worth 8.5 million tons of CO2e were surrendered to meet compliance obligations.
