Ketan JoshiThe design of the Labor party's central climate policy, the 'Safeguard Mechanism', is packed with loopholes that will be mercilessly exploited by the fossil fuel industry.
In fact, the pipeline of new coal and gas mines, enabled through this government-mandated carbon offsetting scheme, might become more likely to worsen emissions - both domestically and overseas, where the fuels are burned.
Add to that an obscene amount of flexibility built into the policy, such that it will only rarely push high-emitters into bringing about real deep decarbonisation.
The policy is over-complicated, technocratic and a mirror image of the fossil fuel industry's own greenwashing tactics. It's a house in which climate delay hides.
I dig right down into the details here, in a new piece for RenewEconomy:
Itwasntme
Boutros CarringBush