While the safeguard mechanism’s reliance on unlimited offsetting is its biggest selling point for the fossil fuel industry, it is also the government’s weakest selling point when it comes to persuading the public and parliament that its laws must be passed in a hurry. The public don’t want PEP-11 or enormous new coalmines to go ahead, with or without offsets, they want real investment in the renewables, energy efficiency and the electrification of transport that will decarbonise our economy.
As the debate about the flaws of the safeguard mechanism heats up, some will inevitable argue that we risk “perfect being the enemy of the good” or even that we are on the brink of “another CPRS moment”. But there are enormous differences between the safeguard mechanism and Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme.
While Labor may have succeeded in wooing the fossil fuel industry with its climate policy, it certainly isn’t inspiring voters. By adopting a climate policy that lets polluters rely entirely on offsets, the government has lost the ability to build genuine public pressure on the Senate to pass its ineffective scheme. By Labor’s own logic, it wouldn’t matter if the safeguard mechanism didn’t pass in a hurry, as we could always just buy some more offsets next year.
The reality is the safeguard mechanism does more to safeguard the fossil fuel industry than it does to safeguard the climate. It hides its support for fossil fuel expansion behind
the cash flow is too big a chocolate not to eat it