Oz Climate "Policy" Lets Industries Pump Out Millions Of Tons In Carbon Beyond Limits w/o Penalty
Mining and heavy industry companies, including BHP and Alcoa, have again been allowed to lift their greenhouse gas emissions without penalty under a climate change policy that the Australian government promised would prevent national pollution increasing.
Under changes posted online on Thursday, BHP coal and iron ore mines in Western Australia and Queensland, Alcoa’s Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria and a Boggabri coalmine in New South Wales were each given the green light to emit more under the scheme known as the “safeguard mechanism”.
Of those made public, the allowed increases ranged between 3% to 33% above previous emissions limits. Not all the increases were published. Two of three BHP mines moved from annual to multi-year emissions limits, which means they promised to emit less over the next two years to make up for excess emissions last year. The increases were signed off despite the safeguard mechanism’s promise to limit emissions from big polluters to ensure they do not just cancel out cuts paid for by taxpayers through the Coalition’s main climate policy, the emissions reduction fund.
Under the scheme, every industrial facility across the country that emits more than 100,000 tonnes a year was set a pollution limit, known as a baseline, based on either its historic emissions or an independent forecast of future emissions. Under changes being introduced this year, all facilities will be moved to limits based not on their total emissions, but on how much they expect to emit per unit of production.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/08/big-polluters-again-allowed-to-lift-emissions-without-penalty
