Mark Butler says Labor wants genuine decarbonisation and is not interested in ‘dodgy accounting tricks’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has given a strong hint at a candidates’ forum in a key Victorian marginal seat that Labor won’t use carry-over credits from the Kyoto period in its final emissions policy.

According to an attendee at the forum held in the electorate of Corangamite on Monday, Butler told the gathering he was not personally keen to use carry-overs if Labor won the coming federal election.

Carry-over credits are an accounting system that allows countries to count credits from exceeding their targets under the soon-to-be-obsolete Kyoto protocol periods against their Paris emissions reduction commitments for 2030.

Marian Smedley, a Greens candidate in last year’s Victorian election, told Guardian Australia Butler told the forum Labor was still taking submissions on carry-overs but he was not keen to use “dodgy accounting”.

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Smedley said Butler told the event it “might not even be legal” to use carry-over credits.

Butler disputes he used that phrase. He told Guardian Australia he did not use the word legal. He said he told Monday’s gathering it still wasn’t clear how the Paris rule book would treat carry-over credits from Kyoto.

Butler said his language at Monday’s forum was entirely consistent with many public comments he has made over a number of months.

On Tuesday morning Butler told the ABC Labor wanted genuine abatement, and was not interested in “dodgy accounting tricks” – a phrase he has used publicly several times in relation to Kyoto credits.

“We are interested in genuine decarbonisation of our economy, that’s what everybody says we have to do, and we are not interested in dodgy accounting tricks,” Butler said.

Butler said the final decision on Labor’s policy would be public well before the election.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said on Tuesday the opposition had not ruled out using international permits as part of its abatement policies.

Labor has already released its policy for reducing emissions in the electricity sector. Over the coming weeks it is expected to unveil a trading scheme for liable entities – big polluters emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon a year; new vehicle emissions standards to bring down pollution in transport; measures for agriculture; and its final position on the use of international permits and Kyoto credits.

The Coalition has confirmed it will bank a 367-megatonne contribution from carry-overs as part of its recently released carbon budget, which details the emissions reductions from various programs that will be required to meet the Paris target.

As well as the chunk from carry-overs, the government is counting just under 100 megatonnes of abatement from “technology solutions”, which have not been specified, and “other sources of abatement”.

The Investor Group on Climate Change, which represents institutional investors such as super funds, with total funds under management of about $2tn, has warned against using carry-over credits as part of the emissions reduction toolkit for Paris.

“The use of carry-over to weaken Australia’s emissions commitments is also fundamentally at odds with limiting warming in line with the objectives of the Paris agreement and driving global momentum for coordinated, and increased ambition,” the group said.