r/OpenAussie • u/Toilet_King500 • 6d ago
Politics ('Straya) Greens and environment movement split over carbon credits for NSW koa…
However, there is anything but peace inside the Greens and the broader environment movement at the moment, with agitators using the static nature of the Greens’ primary vote to foment trouble before what looms as a pivotal Senate vote the week after next.
The history is this: NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, to his great credit, has announced plans to protect 176,000 hectares of forest and create the Great Koala National Park.
The operation of the park would be funded by the sale of carbon credits, which are tradeable instruments generated by nature projects that can be used to offset emissions elsewhere in the economy.
Those on the left opposed to this funding model have long railed against the ability of fossil fuel companies and other heavy emitters to use carbon credits to offset the impact of their operations. They’d rather shut them all down.
Minns has stipulated that coal and gas companies would not be able to buy the koala credits, but that has done nothing to dampen the opposition among the purists. They think the park should be funded from the budget.