The NSW Greens have called on their federal counterparts not to support a Senate vote next week that could block the use of carbon credits to fund the creation of the Great Koala National Park in the state.
The call – made public on Monday for the first time – will add to pressure of the 11 Greens senators to vote down a disallowance motion put forward by the Nationals and the forest industry for a vote in federal parliament on September 15th.
The Senate motion aims to strike down the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) carbon method, proposed by the NSW Minns Labor government and approved by the federal government.
The NSW Greens’ verdict on the method coincided with major environmental groups and some leading ecologists supporting the use of carbon credits to pay for the end native logging and the creation of a new Great Koala National Park (GKNP) in northern NSW.
Groups opposed to the use of such credits included prominent Tasmanian environmentalist and former Greens leader, Bob Brown, and The Australia Institute. They say the credits will enable the coal and gas companies and other carbon emitters to dodge cutting actual emissions.
“NSW Greens MPs do not support the Nationals disallowance motion and we have communicated this to our Federal Greens colleagues,” Sue Higginson, the NSW Green’s spokesperson for climate change and the environment, told Renew Economy.
The state party stressed that it rejected the generation of carbon credits from forests, per se, and supported the protection of forests for their natural climate mitigation and biodiversity values.
However, “if the Nationals and the timber industry get their way, and this method is tanked, it will mean that carbon credits will be generated from our forests and logging will be locked in for years and years,” Higginson said. “We refuse to be part of that.”
A spokesperson for the Australian Greens said that “ahead of the vote we’re consulting with the climate and environment movement”.
“The Greens want to make sure that forests and the climate are both protected,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll take this motion through our usual process.”
It’s understood the federal partyroom could hold off making a final decision until next Monday, on the eve of the Senate disallowance motion vote. Most but not all votes in the partyroom are agreed by consensus.
A NSW government spokesperson said the creation of the GKNP was “conditional on the successful registration of a project under the INFM method”.
“This method will deliver tangible benefits for regional communities by creating diversified revenue streams and supporting new employment opportunities managing forests for their carbon values,” the spokesperson said, adding that other measures including the hiring of an addition 100 national park staff.
“The NSW government is developing a Forestry Industry Action Plan to provide clarity for both industry and local communities on the long-term role of the forestry sector in NSW,” the spokesperson said.
Confirmation of the NSW Greens’ position comes on a day a group of environmental groups took out full-page ads in newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph calling for senators to vote down the disallowance motion.
The groups included WWF-Australia, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, the North East Forest Alliance and Environment Victoria.
Richard Denniss, head of The Australian Institute and a prominent opponent of the use of carbon credits, said the environmental groups were being “wedged” by Labor.
Denniss said it wasn’t clear how the federal Greens MPs would land on the issue of the disallowance, but said the issue had made some supporters of the carbon policy “deficit hawks”, given the Labor Party in NSW had long promised the creation of a Great Koala National Park.
“What is the point of the environment movement in NSW?” he told Renew Economy. “[I]f you can’t hold a premier to a promise, what are they ever going to ask for, ever again?”
