A CONTROVERSIAL carbon neutral certification scheme that several large commercial beef supply chains signed up with to underpin their brand claims, is set to be discontinued next year after a mass exodus from companies in recent years.
Climate Active was set up by the Federal Government to be a standard for brands that wanted to make claims about their emissions – primarily carbon neutral. Several beef industry companies signed up to use it, including the North Australian Pastoral Co, national supermarket retailer Coles and Kilcoy Global Foods.
In a message on the Climate Active website, the Government says it will begin transitioning out of the program and eventually discontinue it on June 30 next year. The statement gave three reasons for winding up the program:
- Changing corporate sustainability practices, including mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements.
- Maturing and widely adopted international guidance frameworks that support voluntary climate action.
- Increased demand for direct emissions reduction from consumers, investors and the public.
Campaign against the carbon market
Anti-fossil fuel groups have long campaigned against Climate Active certification, rallying against its allowance for companies to claim carbon neutrality by purchasing carbon credits.
The argument was that companies purchasing carbon credits were keeping business as usual, rather than reducing their own emissions.
In response to this week’s announcement Climate Council Senior Advisor Ben McLeod said: “We can’t offset our way out of the climate crisis, but Climate Active gave the green tick of approval to everything from polluting gas corporations to petrol at the bowser. It was always a distraction from the real job: cutting climate pollution at the source.”
Frustration at Climate Active
With all the noise from groups like the Climate Council, frustration was building from beef brands that had signed up to the scheme – with the Government struggling to make any decisions on how the carbon market was going to be legislated.
The country’s biggest carbon aggregator GreenCollar announced earlier this year that it was pulling out of the scheme saying it had been hijacked by groups that could only see things as “good and bad”.
NAPCo has also been airing frustrations at the carbon market as it had invested in several carbon projects that could not go ahead due to the Government’s indecision.
- For more on the debate over Climate Active click here.
What are the “mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements” referred to in this first bullet point?
Thank you.