The Business Council of Australia (BCA) welcomes the opportunity to engage with the independent expert review panel (the panel) in its review Australia’s carbon crediting framework (the review).

The recent passing of the climate bill(s) into law is a ‘water shed’ moment for Australia and hopefully the beginning of a new era of durable and stable climate policy that will see us through to achieving a net zero economy by 2050.

Carbon offsets are financial instruments that reflect the value of actions to avoid and remove emissions. As argued in a recent BCA report, Achieving a net zero economy, a robust market for carbon offsets is one of seven critical elements in a fully integrated climate policy architecture required to provide investment certainty and deliver a net zero economy by 2050.

As stated in the Review’s consultation paper, carbon offsets markets are well-established in Australia and the “purpose of the review is to ensure that ACCUs and Australia’s carbon crediting framework are strong and credible and will be supported by participants, purchasers and the broader community”.

The BCA offers the following perspectives on Australia’s carbon crediting framework and we look forward to continuing to work with the panel going forward.

Read the full submission here.