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Polly Hemming Profile picture
Polly Hemming
@pollyjhemming
Director @TheAusInstitute's Climate & Energy Program. Climate integrity // Carbon markets // Greenwashing // Views my own https://t.co/pTDOqvwZ5y
Apr 24, 2024 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
The Australian Government's carbon neutral certification scheme, Climate Active, is entirely representative of Australia's broader framework of state-sponsored greenwash: promoting fossil fuels, lack of regulation & tricky accounting. #climate #auspol
🧵 afr.com/politics/feder…
Image The government 'certifies' organisations who pay a licence fee to Climate Active. This includes fossil companies and retailers such as Ampol, Energy Australia, Telstra and Origin Energy as having 'cancelled out' their greenhouse gas emissions. 1/ climateactive.org.au/sites/default/…

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Jul 4, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
APPEA's submission to the senate inquiry into greenwashing is THE most perfect demonstration of why we need a senate inquiry into greenwashing. *chef's kiss*
#auspol #climate APPEA is sad that activists don't face the same level of accountability that fossil fuel companies face. They're right - activists are intimidated, fined & jailed while the CEOs of fossil companies are lovingly nurtured in Australia's system of state capture. #auspol #climate
May 3, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Fiji is calling for a 'Fossil Fuel-free Pacific'. It has also entered carbon offset trading deal with Australia. If Aus gas companies deliver $$$ to Fiji when they buy offsets, will it ultimately silence Fiji's calls to end fossil fuels? #auspol #climate

facebook.com/ministryoffore… ImageImage The Indo-Pacific Carbon Offset Scheme was established by the coalition government as a way to provide a new supply of carbon offsets to Australia.
May 3, 2023 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
The NT Government suggesting that gas expansion is helping transition away from fossil fuels in its enthusiastic announcement that fracking will proceed in the Beetaloo.
We truly are living in a post-truth world.
#climate #auspol @NatashaFylesMLA @NicoleManison Apparently fracking the Beetaloo will somehow:
Lower energy costs for Territorians
Fund schools and hospitals
Create jobs
Create energy security
Reduce emissions
Displace coal-fired power....
None of this is true.
@NicoleManison @NatashaFylesMLA
#climate #auspol
May 1, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Tourism in Antarctica is one of the most carbon-intensive forms of tourism. It also actively increases snow melt & damages the ecosystems of an already fragile and rapidly degrading environment.
@paulkelly @BenQuilty @Jennifer__Byrne would you reconsider?
#climate #auspol Image @paulkelly @BenQuilty @Jennifer__Byrne At $26k a ticket this isn't in the name of education, awareness or science. It's a luxury 21-day cruise. Antarctica doesn't need more humans.
theconversation.com/more-than-100-…
Feb 22, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
"The pragmatism of continual failure...In the face of failure, carbon experts embraced pragmatism within the rather abstract, even constructed, realm of carbon market policy as an experiment."
The parallels with Australia are striking.
#climate #auspol
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11… I don't think there is a full appreciation for how deeply emotional carbon markets are.
Feb 18, 2023 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
The Safeguard Mechanism is not a good climate policy. It is not designed to drive emissions reductions. If implemented the Safeguard risks locking in INCREASED emissions. Not implementing it will actually have negligible impact.
🧵 #auspol #insiders The overwhelming impression seems to be that the Safeguard is designed to drive decarbonisation. It's not. It's an industry policy designed to give regulatory cover to fossil fuels and to channel private funding to carbon offset developers. 1/
Feb 12, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Whether you believe offsetting is a legitimate premise, it is clear that the entire concept of is not being used as temporary measure by industry while it decarbonises. It is being used as a way to lock in fossil fuel production.
🧵#auspol #climate

abc.net.au/news/2023-02-1… Fracking Beetaloo will result in anywhere from 39 -117 Mt of Co2-e every year (according to federal FOIs). This development has been allowed to proceed is because the NT govt committed to 'offsetting' all emissions from production & onshore combustion of Beetaloo gas. 1/
Jan 19, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
The Australian Government has certified and promoted a significant number of Australian business as 'carbon neutral' on the basis that they've used Verra forest carbon credits. They include @Qantas, @AmpolAustralia and @originenergy along with a lot of others... #climate #auspol .@AmpolAustralia and @originenergy have already tried to claim they're selling carbon neutral petrol and gas with junk Australian HIR and avoided deforestation carbon credits...
Aug 11, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The Climate Change Authority is an independent statutory authority tasked with giving advice to the Australian Government on climate policy. It is hard to see how this advice will be independent when there appear to be conflicts of interest in the governance of the CCA. 🧵#auspol Disclaimer: I am making no allegations of impropriety by any individual. However, there is clear potential for perceived conflicts by the appointment of industry interests to a government body shaping Australian climate policy. 1/
Aug 11, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Advice to the Australian govt on international offsets should probably acknowledge the failure of carbon trading to decarbonise economies for the last 30 yrs. Or at least suggest how the use of offsets now will bring about a different outcome. #auspol 🧵

smh.com.au/politics/feder… Proponents always talk about offsets increasing/unlocking climate 'ambition'. Actually, the climate outcomes of carbon markets are dependent on the ambition of the countries buying & selling the offsets. To date, this ambition has been low and emissions have increased. 2/
Mar 23, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is a bit disingenuous of Telstra. They're a telco that chose to become a fossil gas and electricity retailer and are now making a 'good news' story out of offsetting the subsequent emissions. #climate
google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.… In fairness I think they were on the right path with reducing their organisational emissions. But I'm not sure selling 'carbon neutral' fossil fuels aligns with the urgency or higher moral purpose they have been alluding to. Image
Mar 21, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The government’s solution to all policy issues – no matter how disparate - is gas expansion: COVID, climate change, national security...Looking forward to gas pitched as the answer to the aged care crisis or improving public education outcomes. #auspol afr.com/companies/ener… Support for the gas industry won't address an imaginary gas shortage in Australia b/c most of the gas extracted here is not even for domestic use. War has provided another cover story for what govt was going to do all along: protect the revenue stream of the fossil fuel industry.
Mar 17, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In case there's any doubt that Angus Taylor is actively increasing the supply of carbon credits available to the secondary market he said it yet again this morning.
#auspol #climate

minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/tayl… What's the easiest way to increase supply of a product? Lower the quality. What happens when supply of product increases? The price drops. What's the inevitable result? Enough affordable credits big emitters can use to 'offset' emissions rather than change their business model.
Mar 16, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Australia is currently reviewing the types of international carbon credits it will use towards its climate target. We reviewed a project proposed under one of the frameworks Aus is considering. It's alarming...🧵1/
@andrea_babon @TheAusInstitute #climate
australiainstitute.org.au/report/carbon-… The Australian government is on the hunt in the Indo-Pacific region specifically for carbon credits that Australian businesses can buy (that will also count towards Australia's climate targets) 2/

Jan 19, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The govt has announced a carbon offset method for 'blue carbon'. Blue carbon is basically the 'soil carbon of the sea'. Lots of hype but its capacity to permanently and infinitely store CO2 is being wildly overinflated.1/
#climate #auspol
via @livcasben
canberratimes.com.au/story/7586235/… Blue carbon is the storage of CO2 by coastal ecosystems. Mangroves mostly. This offset method gives projects carbon credits for removing barriers to tidal flows so coastal veg and soil regenerate. The carbon credits can then be sold to businesses to offset their emissions. 2/
Jan 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The govt is clearly getting uneasy that its strategy to use offsets to reconcile 'net zero by 2050' and subsidised gas expansion has been exposed...cue a former gas exec giving a 'rare' interview full of propaganda & conflicting info. 1/ #climate #auspol
afr.com/politics/feder… King's cv for context: former boss of @originenergy, chair of the 'King Review' (report recommending increasing & fast-tracking supply of offsets in Aus & allowing CCS to generate offsets), chair of the CCA, also the chair of GreenCollar the largest offset aggregator in Aus. 2/
Nov 18, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
✅Landholder get millions in govt carbon farming money for not clearing trees on his property (that he was never going to clear anyway).
✅Makes enough money to buy adjacent property.
✅Clears all the trees on adjacent property.
#auspol #climate
abc.net.au/radionational/… This is just one of the things @TheAusInstitute and @AusConservation pointed out could be happening in our report on junk avoided deforestation carbon credits. Land clearing is increasing in areas of NSW where it should be decreasing because of carbon farming projects. ImageImage
Nov 16, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Carbon offsets are a big issue. They're being (ab)used by the fossil fuel industry to justify production & used by businesses that really do want to decarbonise in earnest but can't thanks to our fossil fuel-based economy. A consumer warning🧵 afr.com/politics/why-t… #climate 1/ [NB: This thread is premised on the idea that offsets are a 'thing' and can be used to 'neutralise' emissions. This would be far less of an issue if there were less emissions to offset in the first place...the fossil fuel industry shouldn't be allowed access to offsets] 2/
Nov 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Australia is an excellent case study on everything that could go wrong with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (the mechanism that allows carbon trading to allow countries and businesses to meet their NDCs and targets). We're basically a 'what not to do'. @COP26 1/
#auspol #climate Article 6 is not meant to be interpreted as ‘keep burning coal, oil and gas and then offset the emissions with some tree planting or whatever other crazy technology we decide can generate carbon credits’. But that’s Australia’s approach - both to selling and buying credits. 2/
Nov 3, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Australia is VERY excited about the establishment of new carbon markets at @COP26. It allows us to continue our love affair with coal and gas (now projected at 1.7bil tonnes CO2-e/year if all projects go ahead).
#auspol #climate
theguardian.com/commentisfree/… We're making wildly overinflated claims about the capacity of our land and soil to hold carbon so that we can generate as many offsets as possible as quickly as possible for our own oil and gas companies to hoover up (this was former boss of Origin, Grant King's idea btw).