A number of executives and board members within the carbon farming and offsetting industry have been appointed to senior positions within Australia’s leading environmental NGOs. Callum Foote details why some experts are weary of the connection.
Australia’s flagship climate reform, the Safeguard Mechanism amendment, passed through parliament earlier this year. Four days after the Safeguard Mechanism bill passed, the Federal Government released its Resources and Energy quarterly update for March 2023.
The safeguard mechanism permitted the heaviest emitting facilities in Australia to purchase carbon credits if they do not reduce emissions in line with set baselines.
According to Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics “Australia’s offsetting scheme is the world’s first government-mandated greenwashing system”.
“The offsetting system is basically enabling going emissions of greenhouse gases rather than reducing it,” says Hare “The basic logic of the Australian offsetting scheme, originally designed under Greg Hunt, is that you can get a ton of co2 from somewhere, it may not be real, it may not be additional abatement and it may not be permanent, but as long as it’s registered under the ACCU system, then you could use that to allow the emission of co2 domestically.”
Safeguard Mechanism is great … for big polluters and landowners, not so much for the planet
Christine Milne, former leader of the Australian Greens agrees. “I wouldn’t say that carbon offsets potentially are going to be used to greenwash fossil fuels. I would say that it’s a deliberate strategy to enable the expansion of fossil fuels.”
“Anyone who understands the climate opposed the use of 100% offsets in the Safeguard Mechanism,” Milne says. “The government clearly stuck to 100% offsets because they intended never to stop fossil fuel emission but create a carbon credit industry across the country to give a veneer of legitimacy to ongoing fossil fuel emissions”.
According to Milne “There is no budget in a 1.5 degrees scenario for any new and additional fossil fuels and offsets enable new and additional fossil fuels. Therefore, offsets contradict any claim that Australia’s policy is about reducing emissions”.
According to Allan Fels, former ACCC boss, “The idea that emissions from burning fossil fuels can be permanently absorbed in equal amounts in forests, soils, and mangroves is a false equation widely rejected by climate scientists. Businesses using nature-based offsets or emissions avoidance offsets to make carbon neutral claims are increasingly the subject of complaints and litigation.”
Most, if not all, environmental NGOs advocate for a hierarchical approach to emissions reductions which places offsets at a position of last resort. Michael West Media does not suggest that any of the appointments outlined in this article represent conflicts of interest and makes no allegations of impropriety.
Offsets fuelling not curtailing emissions
Despite the IEA, UN, IPCC and the world’s scientists saying no new fossil fuels, projects are being approved because a percentage of the emissions from these projects will be offset.
For example, the Western Australia Government approved Woodside’s Northwest Shelf extension project because it would offset two-thirds of its onshore emissions while being cleared to produce 4.3 billion tonnes of offshore CO2 emissions over its 50-year life.
Additionally, drilling was approved in the Beetaloo Basin on the condition that onshore emissions would be offset. Estimates of emissions from the Beetaloo Basin range between 39- 117 million tonnes of emissions each year.
Carbon offset interests in NGOs and green groups
Large, often multinational NGOs and green groups hold a significant amount of power when it comes to influencing governments in areas of climate change policy.
Many of these organisations have a significant overlap with carbon-offsetting companies.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is one such organisation. WWF Australia runs carbon offset projects with carbon offset developer Climate Friendly. WWF’s president, Martijn Wilder, has served as the director since 2012 and is also the founder and CEO of climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination Group. His stint at WWF will come to an end at the close of 2023.
Wilder, a former head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and finance practice, is currently also the Chair of the Australian Government’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC).
Climate Asset Management, a joint venture between Pollination and HSBC Asset Management, has raised $650 million for projects which aim to protect the environment. The joint venture has invested in projects which produce and sell carbon credits globally from environmental efforts. Pollination has told MWM that there is no current investment in such projects in Australia.
A spokesperson for Pollination told MWM that “Organisations such as WWF often seek sectoral expertise to strengthen their capability and networks and maximise the impact of their work. Not only is there nothing wrong with this, it is important that they do so.”
“What’s critical is that there is full transparency from individuals involved and that any conflicts are identified and disclosed. This is a basic tenet of good governance and one Martijn always adheres to. Martijn has no day-to-day involvement in organisational decision-making at WWF. His role as President is a non-executive one.” Wilder is expected to finish his term with the WWF.
Wilder was the Chair of the Independent Expert Panel which recommended the 80% emissions reduction target the Victorian government agreed to in May this year. The target does not include the use of offsets.
The WWF board also includes Judy Slatyer, the Chair of Natural Carbon, a carbon offsetting company with projects across Australia. Her roles also include chair of the NSW Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board.
In their submission to the Safeguard Mechanism consultation paper, WWF expressed support for the Safeguard Mechanism. The submission did argue that no new carbon credits should be generated by facilities covered by the mechanism, meaning that credits to cover excessive emissions would have to be drawn from either Safeguard credits or carbon offset providers.
Climate Council
The Climate Council is an Australia-based climate change communications NGO that has been in operation since 2013.
The Climate Council lobbied strongly for the Safeguard Mechanism to pass, however, did advocate for the limited use of carbon credits.
The Climate Council argued for a “carbon mitigation hierarchy, whereby facilities must demonstrate genuine efforts to avoid and reduce emissions before relying on credits or offsets.”
Four of the six Climate Council board members are known to have links to carbon-offsetting companies.
Carol Schwartz, the chair of the council, owns a business with her husband Alan Schwartz, who announced an intended investment of $100m in “carbon reduction initiatives” this year. They already committed $65 million from equity partners Wollemi Capital and Palisade Impact – both of which are involved with the business of carbon offsets.
Kirsty Gold, director at the Climate Council, is the co-founder of Assembly Climate Capital, a climate investment firm with carbon offset interests, alongside her husband Peter Gold, the managing director of Archer Capital – a private equity fund.
Assembly Climate Capital was also co-founded with Justin Punch who is a director of carbon offset brokers and developers Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM), the chairman of Karrkad Kanjdji Trust, who are running indigenous carbon offset and land management projects, and is the former chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
Lesley Hughes, director at the Climate Council is the chief climate officer at Pollination, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, on the board of the Climate Change Authority and former member of the ALP’s Land Sector Carbon Board.
Hughes recently co-authored and op-ed with Grant King, chair of Australia’s largest carbon-offsetting company GreenCollar, on the importance of carbon offsets and sequestration.
The aforementioned Martijn Wilder is one of the Climate Council’s councillors.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
Former President of ACF, Mara Bun, is now on the board of GreenCollar, Australia’s largest carbon offset developer. Previous directors include John Connor, now the CEO of the carbon offset advocacy group, the Carbon Market Institute.
The Carbon Market Institute’s member list includes a veritable who’s who of big business and carbon offset providers in Australia.
Kelly O’Shanassy, the CEO of ACF, recently spoke at the Carbon Market Institute’s carbon farming forum.
ACF published a report with Pollination last year on ‘the nature-based economy.’
Due to the ACF’s strong support for the Safeguard Mechanism to be passed, leading environmentalist and former leader of the Australian Greens Bob Brown relinquished his lifetime membership. However, the Foundation’s submissions to the Safeguard Mechanism strongly advocated against the expanded use of carbon credits.
Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists
The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is an independent group comprising Australian scientists, economists and business people with conservation interests.
Lesley Hughes, Martijn Wilder are both members of Wentworth Group alongside Rob Purves, businessman and former President of WWF Australia.
Additionally, Emma Carmody the co-founder of Restore Blue, a wetland restoration ‘blue carbon’ company, is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. However, Restore Blue maintains a strict policy of not selling or facilitating the sale of any credits created from its wetland restoration efforts to fossil fuel companies. Restore Blue also supports the mitigation hierarchy. Carmody spent over a decade working for the Environmental Defenders’ Office.
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Editor’s Note: the original version of this story has been amended for the purposes of clarity, accuracy and fairness. MWM does not allege any impropriety or conflicts of interest as a result of the connections detailed within this article. We believe there is a clear public interest however in detailing the network of influential individuals and organisations within Australia’s climate change policy debate, as has been done with many other policy areas. This is particularly the case in sectors where public subsidies exist.
Callum Foote was a reporter for Michael West Media for four years.