A new report from Lock The Gate Alliance has revealed Labor's safeguard mechanism policy will pay 10 coal mines to INCREASE their emissions by more than double. This is utter hypocrisy.

Many of the coal mines identified in the report have major expansion plans - so these coal mining companies will be rewarded to expand and increase their emissions.

“Reforming” the former coalition Government’s Safeguard Mechanism is the only mechanism that Labor has committed to to reach its 43% emission reduction target by 2030. That 43% target falls far short of the 75% emission reduction target by 2030 that the International Energy Agency says Australia needs to make to stay within 1.5 degrees of warming.

The analysis of how different facilities are treated under the safeguard mechanism – the government’s main policy to deal with major polluters – has prompted calls for changes to deal with this “perverse outcome” and require every coalmine to take additional steps to cut emissions.

The Coalition introduced the safeguard mechanism after it repealed a national carbon price scheme, with a promise it would be used to stop industrial emissions rising. In practice, companies were often allowed to increase their pollution limits without penalty.

Read more: The Guardian, 4 Oct 2023.

Read more: Lock The Gate, 4 Oct 2023.