Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Greens for their support in relation to that last amendment. I move amendment (1) on sheet 5913:

(1)    Page 204 (after line 4), after Part 7, insert:

Part 7C—Legacy waste or closed landfill facility scheme

Division 1—Introduction

164X  Aim and objects

                 The aim of this Part is to create additional incentives for abatement from legacy waste or closed landfill facilities under the carbon pollution scheme.

164Y  Interpretation

                 In this Part:

CPRS means the carbon pollution reduction scheme, other than the provisions of this Part.

scheme means the legacy waste or closed landfill facility scheme formulated under section 164Z.

164Z  Legacy waste or closed landfill facility scheme

        (1)    The regulations must formulate a scheme (to be known as the legacy waste or closed landfill facility scheme) for the issue of free Australian emissions units in respect of abatement from legacy waste or closed landfill facilities under the CPRS.

        (2)    The scheme must provide that free Australian emissions units must not be issued to a person in accordance with the scheme unless the person:

             (a)    meets such requirements as are specified in the scheme; and

             (b)    has a Registry account.

        (3)    The Minister must take all reasonable steps to ensure that regulations are made for the purposes of subsection (1) before 1 July 2010.

        (4)    The scheme must provide that a person is entitled to apply for and receive free Australian emissions units in respect of activities connected to a legacy waste and closed landfill facility without regard as to whether the infrastructure of the facility:

             (a)    was in place prior to the commencement of the CPRS; or

             (b)    was installed specifically to create offsets under the CPRS; or

             (c)    was installed to meet regulatory requirements which are in force, or may come into force, under any other law or regulation; or

             (d)    meets the requirements of any abatement regime which is in force, or may come into force, under any other law or regulation.

        (5)    The scheme must not apply in respect of any person, activity or facility unless that person, activity or facility meets all of the requirements of the CPRS other than in respect of the matters specified in subsection (2).

        (6)    The scheme may make provision for any of the matters mentioned in sections 168 to 173C, as if a reference in those sections to the emissions-intensive trade-exposed assistance program were a reference to the scheme.

        (7)    The scheme may contain ancillary or incidental provisions.

This relates to legacy waste and landfill facility schemes. This amendment acknowledges innovative technology which holds huge potential for abatement but which some would say has been largely ignored, mainly landfill waste capture. I think there was a good discussion with the minister yesterday in the chamber about this. There is a concern that, while landfill gas energy providers are able to trade carbon credits from the combustion of landfill gas under the NGAS and GGAS programs, this situation will cease with the commencement of the CPRS.

I will not traverse what was raised yesterday, but I will mention very briefly the discussion I have had with Mr John Falzon, the managing director of LMS Generation, who in recent years has sold approximately 850,000 tonnes of abatement under the Australian Greenhouse Office’s Greenhouse Friendly program. There is a concern about the whole concept of additionality and both existing projects and future projects that will be put at risk. I could go on further, but I think it was traversed adequately yesterday and I am hopeful that those genuine projects will still be able to thrive under an ETS.