INDUSTRY NEWS
Flexibility needed on government’s emissions stance
Questions unanswered: AFPA INDUSTRY has cautiously welcomed the Abbott government’s Emissions Reduction Fund White Paper, but the AFPA says key questions for forest industries remain to be answered if they are to fulfil their true potential in a carbon constrained economy. AFPA CEO Ross Hampton says the government has a clear mandate to remove the carbon tax and replace it with the Direct Action Scheme. “The Emissions Reduction Fund will reduce Australia’s carbon footprint in line with our international undertakings,” Mr Hampton said.
Clear mandate to remove the carbon tax “Some AFPA members are captured within the 130 largest emitters and it is vital that the baseline setting of previous emission intensities is fair to these operators.” AFPA continues to argue that the government should consider flexibility on contract terms to take into account the unique characteristics of slow-growing forestry and plantation projects. “The government is to be applauded for expanding and broadening the membership of the domestic offsets integrity committee which approves the methodologies for carbon reducing activities,” Mr Hampton said. “In the past, Australian policy makers have received guidance
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Ross Hampton .. cautious welcome to white paper.
which drove methodologies toward locking away trees and reaping short-term, fleeting carbon benefits. This was despite groups as diverse as the Climate Institute, Yale University, University of Washington and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agreeing that in the longer term the greatest mitigation would come from rotational forestry and the storing of carbon in the likes of house frames and furniture.” Another positive, says Mr Hampton, is the absolute commitment by the Abbott government to refuse to support any carbon reduction project which could have an adverse ‘social, environmental or economic impact’. “Any proposed action to reduce sustainable forest harvesting will not only lead to a perverse carbon outcome by removing less carbon over the longer term, it will lead to negative social and economic impacts for Australia through reduced jobs.”
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