Emissions Reduction Fund Green Paper released for public comment

On 20 December 2013, the Australian Government released the Emissions Reduction Fund Green Paper, inviting public comment and written submissions until 21 February 2014. The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is central to the Government's Direct Action Plan aimed at reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions to five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 and initial allocations of $300m, $500m and $750m have been made over the forward estimates. The Clean Energy Regulator (Regulator) will run a reverse auction to buy back, at the lowest cost, Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) from businesses.

The design of the ERF is based on three guiding principles:

• Lowest-cost emissions reductions. The overriding objective of the ERF is to identify and purchase emissions reduction projects at the lowest available cost.