The Albanese Government’s proposed changes to Australia’s safeguard mechanism have been questioned by an independent senator. 

The proposed safeguard mechanism for emissions reduction remains uncertain due to concerns expressed by independent senator David Pocock. 

While the scheme would cap the emissions of the 215 largest polluters and require them to trade emissions or buy carbon offset credits if they exceed the limit, Senator Pocock has called for further changes to ensure its effectiveness. 

Specifically, he has recommended limits on heavy industries offsetting emissions to prevent them from competing with new fossil fuel and gas projects. 

The government will need the support of the Greens and two crossbenchers for the legislation to pass the upper house. 

Concerns over the mechanism have been compounded by new modelling indicating that the emissions budget is at risk of blowing out, particularly due to 16 new coal and gas projects. 

The Climate Council and Australian Conservation Foundation have called for fine-tuning of the mechanism to prevent the carbon budget from being exceeded, particularly in light of 100 further fossil fuel projects under development. 

Senator Pocock says industries such as steel, aluminium and cement should not be placed in the same category as fossil fuels.

“We’re designing it in a way that those steel, aluminium and cement are going to have to be competing with potentially new fossil fuel projects, new gas projects that are going to want to offset their emissions,” he said.

“While in principle, this is something that we need, we’ve got to get this right.”