Climate con-artists - Coalition’s offset scheme a dangerous deception

Once again, the Liberal-National Government is all talk and no substance when it comes to taking action on climate change.

Launching the scheme, the Liberals said that it will help NSW reach its emissions reduction targets. But the government’s own modelling anticipates an initial uptake of only 0.1%, resulting in just 0.02MT abated annually.

Once again, the Liberal-National Government is all talk and no substance when it comes to taking action on climate change.

Greens NSW MP and spokesperson for Transport, Abigail Boyd, said:

“Matt Kean has just launched a scheme that by his government’s own modelling will address just 0.001% of total transport emissions in NSW. What’s his plan for the other 99.999%?

“The truth is that the Liberal-National government have taken their hands completely off the wheel when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. At every turn, they have steered us away from the long-term solutions to tackling transport sector emissions. Instead of investing heavily in reliable and accessible public transport across the state, they have chosen to drive more and more people onto expensive privatised toll roads.

“At every junction, the Treasurer has proposed market-based solutions to the climate crisis. But a market led approach has consistently failed to deliver the emissions reductions required. Minister Kean’s climate credentials are now looking as flimsy as the worthless carbon offset credits swirling around the global markets.

“It’s actions like these that serve to undermine the legitimacy of an offset reduction scheme - these credits are meant to be of the highest integrity and preserved for the most difficult to abate sectors, not used as a cheap pre-election marketing trick. Passenger vehicles have a clear pathway for decarbonisation, and this scheme runs counter to that attempt.

“In the little over 2 years since promising to transition all 8,000 of NSW’s buses to electric by 2030, barely 100 electric buses are operational on NSW streets. Delivering on and accelerating this promise would show that this government is serious about reducing transport emissions.

“What the government is really admitting with this announcement is that they’re anxious about the upcoming election, and also that they have no intention of moving with anywhere the speed required to deliver a zero-emissions passenger transport environment.

“The government keeps repeating the spin that they are spending $209m for EV charging infrastructure, but they are once again being cute with the truth. The most recent budget shows they are intending to spend just one-tenth of that amount, $20.1 million in 2022-23.”

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Climate con-artists - Coalition’s offset scheme a dangerous deception

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

Will you sign?

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