Fed Safeguard Mechanism (2016)

Policy Engagement Overview

• The evidence collected on corporate and industry lobbying on Australia’s SM from 2014-2020 indicates that the most frequent lobbying position has been ‘Not Supporting’.
• InfluenceMap did not find any evidence of opposition to the SM, but there were 46 cases of entities lobbying for provisions to weaken the scheme, primarily focused on weakening emissions baselines to protect trade competitiveness. This negative lobbying was carried out by a range of companies and industry associations with Ai Group, APPEA and Minerals Council of Australia the most engaged.
• InfluenceMap found 35 cases of positive lobbying on the SM, 25 of which were by Carbon Market Institute, which has advocated for declining emissions baselines in line with net zero by 2050 since 2018.

Impacts on Policy Ambition

In March and September 2018, the federal Department of the Environment and Energy received over 50 submissions from industry and other organizations to two consultation papers on the operation of the Safeguard Mechanism. In March 2019, the Safeguard Mechanism was updated to bring emissions baselines up to date and allow them to keep pace with business growth, thereby increasing the amount of emissions allowed per facility. The federal government also accepted a recommendation under the King Review to introduce 'Safeguard Mechanism Credits', providing tradeable credits for facilities which reduce emissions below their emissions baselines by undertaking "transformative abatement projects".