Regulation Impact Statement – Department of the Environment and Energy
On 6 March 2019, the Government registered and published the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Safeguard Mechanism) Amendment Rule (No. 1) 2019 to amend the Safeguard Mechanism.
The Safeguard Mechanism was established as part of the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). The ERF provides an incentive for activities that count towards meeting Australia’s international climate commitments. The Safeguard Mechanism complements the emissions reduction elements of the ERF by sending a signal to businesses to avoid large unconstrained increases in emissions beyond business-as-usual levels. It achieves this by placing a legislated obligation on Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to keep net emissions below their emissions limit (or baseline). The amendments are designed to: