Waste, GHGs and Local Government: From Green Paper to White Paper Tim Moore PhD Managing Director

Waste, GHGs and Local Government: From Green Paper to White Paper Tim Moore PhD Managing Director Balance Carbon Pty Ltd

Overview • Green Paper • Responses • Possible outcomes • Impact on LG and waste

NGER Act: Reporting National Greenhouse & Energy Reporting Act 2007

Green Paper: CPRS • Govt “caps” emissions • Allocates permits to that level • Distribution to industry (grandfathering, auction) • TEEII, strongly affected industry • 1permit per tCO2e • End of year acquittal: emissions vs. permits • Markets chose whether to buy permits or reduce emissions • cost effective action differs between businesses

NGER Act/Green Paper • All sectors other than agriculture covered • Green Paper suggests changes to NGER • Reporting threshold to 10KtCO2e for waste • Councils included along with individuals (will have to invoke international agreement to override constitutional issues)

WMAA National Carbon Committee • Supports broad concept of CPRS; consideration of: • the appropriate emissions threshold • Exclusions of waste pre-dating scheme start • Post closure costs; • measurement • Accept 25ktCO2e threshold, not 10ktCO2e • Exclude historical waste • Create accurate, cost effective measurement process • Exclude waste until measurement problems clarified

National Carbon Committee • The Government should give consideration to complementary measures which will encourage emissions reductions in the parts of the waste industry which are not directly caught by the CPRS. • Recycling, offsets, compost…

LGA SA • Broad agreement with approaches outlined in WMAA submission • IF the Govt sees that it must include different thresholds for urban vs. rural, then 10ktCO2e and 25ktCO2e for rural • Consideration of offsets or other complementary measures

SA Goverment • Broad agreement with approaches outlined in WMAA and LGA SA submissions

SO, most submissions… • Disagreed that waste could be equitably measured at landfill • That lack of complementary measures in the sector would disadvantage other operators (recycling) • That a “split” threshold was inequitable and would have unwanted outcomes • That historical liabilities and closed sites are hard to deal with • That the waste sector should be excluded

Implications • If waste is out: • no “stick” to get organics out of landfill • a carrot (“carbon credits”) would exist • will likely eventually be brought into CPRS, and will be facing high costs (equal to global carbon price) • If waste is in: • Cost of dumping organics will be different to other material • Cost will be charged up front (how?) • Some LGs will be captured by NGERS and CPRS

Ideally… • Waste is out (at least for first phase and join if agriculture joins) • Organic waste is diverted from landfill, or treated differently at the landfill • Carbon credit price goes high enough fast enough to fund emissions avoidance (capture, flaring, power, composting…) • When waste joins CPRS, no sites triggering threshold.

Measure, Manage, Mitigate www.balancecarbon.com tim@balancecarbon.com

Waste, GHGs and Local Government: From Green Paper to White Paper Tim Moore PhD Managing Director