SEC response to Climate Change Authority
Date: 3rd August 2026
Submitted to: CCA
Short Description
The Smart Energy Council provided a response to the Climate Change Authority’s Fossil methane: A near-term abatement opportunity consultation.
We support urgent onsite methane reduction across existing coal and gas operations, but emphasise that mitigation must strictly apply to current facilities and never be used to justify approving new fossil fuel developments.
Our recommendations encourage the Authority to tighten Safeguard Mechanism baselines to mandate direct physical abatement over on-paper offsets, establish binding sector-specific methane targets under the Global Methane Pledge and adopt a 20-year Global Warming Potential (GWP-20) metric to accurately capture near-term climate impacts.
This submission will inform the Climate Change Authority’s advice on national policy settings and near-term abatement frameworks.
