Safeguard Mechanism not a solve-all: need for climate considerations in project assessment processes
The Safeguard Mechanism seeks to reduce the direct emissions from industrial facilities in line with Australia’s emissions targets. Recently reformed, the Mechanism aims to do so by incentivising covered facilities to mitigate or offset their pollution to meet specific emissions limits. It is a useful policy tool which covers about 30% of Australia’s annual national ‘scope 1’ emissions.
However, the Safeguard Mechanism is not a substitute for considering climate impacts and emissions contributions during the assessment stage for new projects. The Mechanism has a completely different function, only applying to projects once they have been approved. The reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism cannot be used to justify disregarding climate considerations in assessment processes (at the state or territory level), or to justify the approval of any new fossil fuel projects.
Summary
Key takeaways
This briefing note outlines three key limitations of the Safeguard Mechanism which illustrate the need for climate considerations in all planning assessment and approval processes:
- The Safeguard Mechanism only regulates emissions after a polluting project is approved and is unconnected to federal assessment processes.
- The Safeguard Mechanism does not regulate Australia’s biggest contribution to climate change: downstream emissions.
- The Safeguard Mechanism does not replace state and territory assessment of climate impacts and emissions.
