The centrepiece of the government’s Direct Action scheme,
introduced by the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is the emissions reduction
fund (ERF). Through a reverse auction, it pays polluters to pollute less –
mostly paying farmers not to clear their land. So far about $1.7bn has been
spent through the ERF.
The analysis for the Green Institute, a not-for-profit
organisation supporting green policies, says much of that clearing wouldn’t
have happened anyway, so shouldn’t count as real abatement.
The authors, Margaret Blakers and Margaret Considine, looked
at each of the projects funded and found 75% of the fund’s vegetation projects
were paying to stop clearing in regions dominated by mulga plants.
Assuming those projects were paid the average price per
hectare, the government paid about $360 per hectare for avoided deforestation
and about $205 per hectare for regeneration.
Read The Guardian
story - “Direct Action paying polluters to avoid clearing land they would never have cleared – report.”
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