In December 2008 the Department of Climate Change released a
National Carbon Offset Discussion Paper (Discussion
Paper) together with a draft National Carbon Offset
Standard (Standard). The purpose of the Standard
is to provide a nationally consistent 'benchmark' for the
regulation of voluntary carbon offsets, and to enhance consumer
confidence in the voluntary carbon market by providing guidance on
what constitutes a genuine carbon offset. The Standard is concerned
with voluntary activity that occurs beyond that imposed by the
Federal Government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
(CPRS).
The CPRS is likely to have significant implications for the
voluntary carbon market. The White Paper and draft legislation (see
our previous
legal updates) proposes that the CPRS will have very broad
sectoral coverage and only those sectors not covered by the scheme
should be able to create offsets. This means that there is
inherently less scope to pursue domestic offset
