Labor wants safeguard mechanism to cut emissions from big polluters by up to 6% a year

Facilities under Labor’s proposed changes to the safeguard mechanism will have an emissions limit, with those emitting under that baseline to receive carbon credits. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Australia’s big polluting industries are likely to have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by between 3.5% and 6% a year under the Albanese government’s plan to respond to the climate crisis.

The government has released a consultation paper setting out how it could reform the safeguard mechanism, a policy that was introduced by the Coalition under Tony Abbott in 2016 to prevent increases in industrial emissions. In practice, companies have been allowed to increase pollution without penalty and industrial emissions have continued to rise.