Free carbon credits could threaten Australia’s emission reduction targets, Labor’s advisers warn

A report by RepuTex report said the proposal to give away free carbon credits could lead to half of Australia’s big fossil fuel sites initially getting a financial windfall instead of being required to make emissions cuts. Photograph: Horizon International Images/Alamy

The climate firm Labor used to model its policies before the federal election has advised the government to abandon a proposal that could hand free carbon credits to big industrial polluters – warning it could lead to Australia missing its emissions reduction targets.

RepuTex – a consultancy that the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has described as Australia’s top energy economists – issued the warning in a report on the safeguard mechanism, a policy that was introduced by the Coalition in 2016 to prevent increases in industrial pollution.