Australian Carbon Trust
The Australian Government is providing over $100 million to establish the Australian Carbon Trust, an initiative designed to support energy efficiency action by businesses.
Federal Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Penny Wong, said the Carbon Neutral Program - an initiative of the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) - will allow businesses to certify their products, services and/or operations as carbon neutral.
The National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) was announced by the government on the 20th January 2010 and came into effect as of 1 July. The NCOS aims to guide consumers and businesses regarding the integrity of voluntary carbon offsetting and provides a standard for becoming carbon neutral.
Businesses will apply to the Carbon Trust for use of the NCOS logo and if they are successful they will be able to use this logo to help promote their products and services as environmentally friendly.
“This program will benefit consumers by giving them greater certainty about whether a product is truly carbon neutral,” Senator Wong said.
“Consumers will be able to be confident when they see a business display the logo that they are committed to reducing their emissions and becoming carbon neutral.’’
Based on a British model, the UK Carbon Trust was implemented by the Labour Government in 2008. To date, the UK not-for-profit claims to have saved around 23 million tonnes of carbon and around £1.4 billion [$2.5 billion] in energy costs.
Australian Businesses that have already indicated their intention to participate in the program include: An Meá, Australian Paper, Australia Post, ANZ, Carbon Planet, Fosters, Jetstar, Keytek, National Australia Bank, Lion Nathan, Printer Workz, Qantas, Sensis, Sustainable Living Fabrics and Virgin Blue Airlines.