<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/beginning-of-the-end-for-carbon-offsets-parents-take-energy-giant-to-court/>
"A lawsuit launched by a group of Australian parents against one of the
country’s largest energy companies could be about to deliver a mortal blow to
Australia’s carbon offset industry and the carbon neutral certification scheme
run by the Australian Government.
Climate action group Parents for Climate are suing EnergyAustralia – one of
Australia’s ‘Big 3’ energy retailers and the owner of two coal fired power
stations – alleging the energy company misled customers about the environmental
benefits of its ‘carbon neutral’ energy services.
If successful, the case could have profound implications that ripple through
the Australian market for carbon offsets and fundamentally change the way
companies can promote themselves and their products as climate friendly.
In submissions to the Federal Court, Parents for Climate allege EnergyAustralia
misled or deceived its customers – breaching the Australian Consumer Law – when
promoting two electricity and gas products that it claimed were carbon neutral.
Advertising material produced by EnergyAustralia claimed that by purchasing “Go
Neutral” branded electricity and gas services, the customer’s energy purchases
would “make a real difference to the environment”, “support global efforts to
address and mitigate climate change” and that the emissions associated with the
products had been “cancelled out” or “negated”.
EnergyAustralia’s claim that the products are carbon neutral is based on the
certification it received through the Federal Government run Climate Active
program. Under the Climate Active scheme, companies can obtain a carbon neutral
certification for the company itself or the specific products and services it
sells by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions using carbon credits."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
