麻豆淫院

The Federal Government should increase its climate change mitigation target to account for cheap land-based carbon offsets, according to the author of a new report from The Australian National University.

The report by Andrew Macintosh, Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy, found the potential for land-based offsets exceeds Australia鈥檚 total abatement target of 5 per cent and that, to date, this potential has not been properly factored into the Government鈥檚 position in international negotiations.

鈥淚n the international climate negotiations, Australia has argued for a less stringent mitigation target than other developed countries because it will incur relatively high economic costs in cutting its emissions,鈥� said Mr. Macintosh. 鈥淭o support its case, the Australian Government has relied on economic modelling by Treasury which downplays Australia鈥檚 potential to generate cheap land-based offsets.

鈥淚f the true potential for land-based offsets is taken into account, the cost of meeting Australia鈥檚 targets will fall considerably and, if the rationale behind Australia鈥檚 negotiating position is followed, the reduction in expected costs should lead to an increase in Australia鈥檚 mitigation pledge,鈥� he said.

The report, LULUCF Offsets and Australia鈥檚 2020 Abatement Task, which was supported by a grant from Greenpeace, finds that the maximum theoretical land-based offset the country could achieve is significantly beyond its total abatement task.

鈥淲hile not all of this potential is achievable, the research suggests that land-based offsets are likely to far exceed the Government鈥檚 estimates and that a significant proportion of these offsets will come at zero or low cost,鈥� said Mr. Macintosh.

鈥淚n particular, Australia will be able to claim around 12 million tonnes of offsets each year as a result of the Regional Forest Agreement process of the 1990s, and over 100 million tonnes of offsets as a result of falling deforestation rates in Queensland, much of which will require no additional economic effort.鈥�

He added that the government was overlooking these cheap sources of abatement to support its claims for a concessional mitigation target in international negotiations.

鈥淭he Australian Government needs to update its economic modelling to account for the potential for cheap land-based offsets and improve the transparency of its greenhouse accounting framework,鈥� said Mr. Macintosh.