ESG Snapshot: Issue 89

This week's highlights include:

• Sustainable finance cooperation. The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute is on track to secure an important authorisation from the ACCC.
• Stewardship law slammed. The federal product stewardship law is fundamentally flawed, a key recycling body has told the Productivity Commission.
• First Safeguard insights. New data gives the first insights into the performance of the reformed Safeguard Mechanism.
• Greenwashing fine. The maker of Glad products has been fined millions of dollars for misleading claims about the use of ocean plastic.
• Another wind farm backflip. The Queensland government has again backflipped on assessing a major wind farm.
• Post-mining shake-up. A NSW inquiry has recommended an overhaul of legislation dealing with the post-mining use of land.
• No new carbon plan for Woodside? Woodside might not be required to prepare a new greenhouse gas abatement program for its Pluto project.
• Woolworths faces shareholder resolution. Woolworths is facing another shareholder resolution over the use of farmed salmon in its products (company news).
• 'Detailed proposals'. Queensland's mining minister has discussed with the mining and gas industry 'detailed, target proposals' to speed approvals.

ESG Snapshot - powered by the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia and curated by ESG communications and content consultancy Earthed.

The ACCC has released a draft determination that would authorise the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) and industry participants to collaborate on sustainable finance initiatives for five years.

ASFI is seeking authorisation for itself, its members, and other industry participants to exchange information to:

• improve the integration of natural capital data into financial decision-making.
• co-design and test market appetite for sustainable finance solutions that contribute to the energy transition or other environmental and/or social objectives.
• identify and propose reforms to regulatory impediments to sustainable finance and investment.

The move follows the granting of an interim authorisation in March.

The Clean Energy Regulator has released FY24 data on the performance of the Safeguard Mechanism - the first data issued since reforms to the scheme took effect. The data shows that:

• 219 facilities were covered by the Safeguard Mechanism.
• total Safeguard emissions fell very slightly from 138.7 million tonnes of CO2e in FY23, to 136.0 million tonnes in FY24.
• 62 facilities received a total of 8.3 million Safeguard Mechanism Credit units (SMCs) because their emissions were below their baseline.
• 7.1 million ACCUs and 1.4 million SMCs were surrendered to meet compliance obligations.

The legislative framework for voluntary product stewardship schemes is so flawed that no more voluntary schemes should be accredited until it is overhauled, says a submission to the Productivity Commission's circularity inquiry.

The submission by the Australian Council of Recycling says the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 "enables schemes to operate under the guise of government endorsement - through Commonwealth branding - without requiring commensurate levels of governance, transparency, or performance".

It urges a review to "rigorously assess the effectiveness and accountability of existing schemes in achieving Australia’s resource recovery and waste reduction targets".

The Federal Court has ordered Clorox Australia Pty Ltd to pay a total penalty of $8.25 million for making false or misleading representations to consumers that certain GLAD kitchen and garbage bags were partly made of recycled "ocean plastic", following court action by the ACCC.

Clorox admitted that, between June 2021 and July 2023, it breached the Australian Consumer Law by representing on packaging that the products were made of at least 50% recycled plastic waste collected from the ocean or sea, when this was not the case.

In fact, the products were made from about 50% plastic waste which had been collected from communities in Indonesia with no formal waste management systems, situated up to 50 kilometres from a shoreline, and otherwise from non-recycled plastic.

The panel reviewing National Electricity Market wholesale market settings has scheduled public forums in major cities, to be held from 13 May to 29 May.

The Australian Industry Group has released an Election 2025: Energy and climate policy paper.

A new report from the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation concludes that, without immediate action, Australia's forestry industry will struggle to meet rising construction timber demand, placing greater pressure on housing affordability and regional jobs.
 
Australia's timber industry is "an industry in freefall", ACBF chair Dr Ken Henry said.

The report "reveals the value in supporting timber manufacturing while highlighting the urgency for the federal government to implement a new National Forest Policy, which hasn’t been updated in more than 30 years," Henry said.

Grant opportunity - industrial decarbonisation. ARENA is inviting applications under round two of its Powering the Regions - Industrial Transformation Stream, with $70 million on offer.

Focus areas for round two include supporting supporting highly innovative, first of a kind technologies and solutions that have the potential to significantly reduce emissions. Applications close on 15 July.

The Queensland government's Resources Cabinet Committee has met with representatives from the Queensland Resources Council, Coal Australia, Australian Energy Producers, and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.

The meeting discussed "detailed targeted proposals focused on cutting delays and streamlining approvals", said Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dale Last.

Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie has ordered a rapid decision on a wind farm project, after earlier this year putting assessment of the project temporarily on hold.

Bleijie earlier this month directed that a decision on the proposed 1.4GW Wongalee wind farm be made within 26 days, backflipping on his January decision that the assessment process be suspended for four months.

The direction for a decision on Wongalee within 26 days marks the second backflip by Bleijie on wind farm assessments.

Last month, he ordered a decision within 20 days on the Bungaban renewable energy wind farm, despite having ordered a four-month suspension of the assessment process in January.

Banana Shire Council will host a Business, Projects and Suppliers event on 1May as it prepares for a major uplift in renewable energy development.

A total of 25 large-scale projects are in the pipeline across the region, valued at more than $40 billion. At least eight of these projects are expected to start construction before July 2026.

The report of a parliamentary committee inquiry into post-mining land use has recommended a comprehensive program of review of post-mining regulatory framework and processes.

The statutory frameworks should be overhauled so that they support the development of innovative post-mining land uses, the report says.

The report makes 12 other recommendations including:

• evaluating current security deposits to ensure they are sufficient to meet rehabilitation requirements.
• elevating the leadership of regional resource and energy transition
  to a ministerial and senior departmental working group level.
• incentivising post-mining land uses that leverage the reuse of
  essential infrastructure, to provide a return on closure expenses, and reduce decommissioning costs and waste.

EnergyCo has granted four wind, solar and battery projects the right to connect to new transmission lines in the South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

The projects are Origin Energy's 1,460MW Yanco Delta wind farm, Spark Renewables' 1,007MW Dinawan Energy Hub, Someva's Pottinger 831.2MW wind and battery energy park and BayWA's Bullawah 262.3MW wind farm.

The projects include more than 700MW of battery storage.

The public comment period closed yesterday for the Natural Resources Commission's review of measures to protect and restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions on private lands.

The Commission will finalise its report in early 2026.

Transcript of the latest hearing of a Select Committee inquiry into PFAS in waterways and drinking water is now available.

The NSW government has released a draft hemp industry development plan, with comments due by 19 May.

The NSW government has released an Explanation of Intended Effect which proposes stronger penalties for illegal tree and vegetation clearing in urban areas.

Exemptions will also be tightened for dead, dying and dangerous vegetation "to close loopholes that have been open to abuse", the state government says.

Comments are due by 4 June.

Waste company SKM Services Pty Ltd and its sole director have been fined a total of $1.28 million over a major fire in 2017 that destroyed a recycling plant, burned for more than a week, and triggered the evacuation of nearby homes.

 The County Court found the company guilty of negligently causing or permitting an environmental hazard which resulted in a substantial risk of a serious threat to public health, as well as three charges of polluting the atmosphere. 

SKM was fined $1.14 million, and director Robert Leo Italiano was fined $140,000.

The clean-up after the fire involved the removal of 30,000 tonnes of burnt waste.

The state government is inviting tenders for a delivery partner for Victoria's Wind Worker Training Centre, and will provide a $4.9 million grant to support its establishment.

Six South Australian councils have secured a draft determination from the ACCC authorising them to form a joint renewable electricity buying group.

The councils have also secured an interim authorisation that enables them to start work on the joint project pending a final authorisation.

Green Industries SA has awarded Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) a $100,000 Lead-Educate-Assist-Promote (LEAP) grant, for its Moving Forward Sustainability Program.

The program will support HVIA members with South Australian operations in applying sustainable and circular principles to reduce emissions, improve fuel efficiency, and align with climate goals.

Woodside was supposed to submit a revised greenhouse gas abatement program (GGAP) for its Pluto project by the end of last year, under the terms of Ministerial Statement 1208, but now might not have to revise it at all.

The company has released the latest environmental compliance report for the Pluto project which says that the company requested and obtained approval from DWER, in a letter dated 18 December 2024, to extend the deadline for submitting its revised GGAP to 30 April 2025.

In addition, Woodside notes that the WA government is now leaving the regulation of large-emitting projects to the federal Safeguard Mechanism, and is no longer requiring the preparation of GGAPs.

"In accordance with the updated policy, the state government will initiate a review of existing ministerial statements," Woodside says.

"Woodside understands a review of MS1208 is likely to be progressed during 2025 to reflect the updated position," the compliance report says.

The WA EPA has decided to assess a marine sands mining proposal off the Kimberley north coast.

Boskalis Australia's Cambridge Gulf Marine Sand Proposal near Wyndham plans to export up to 70 million cubic metres of sand to Asia for use in construction.

New listings are in blue.

Woolworths Group has received a shareholder resolution for consideration at its October annual general meeting, focused on the impact of farmed seafood used in its own brand products.

The shareholders request that Woolworths identify the impacts of the farmed seafood that it uses on species listed under the EPBC Act, and that it reports these impacts in its 2026 sustainability report.

They also request that Woolworths aligns its Group Seafood Sourcing Policy with a
global best practice standard, such as the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions Guidance for Companies.

Woolworths faced a similar resolution in 2024.

The Green Impact Exchange (GIX) has announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved its Form 1 application, clearing the way for the first stock market in the US dedicated to the sustainability economy. GIX expects to begin trading in early 2026.

China's next Nationally Determined Contribution will cover all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases, China's President Xi JinPing has said in remarks on climate change.

New Zealand's Climate Change Commission has released its latest annual advice on the NZ ETS unit limits and price control settings, for 2026–2030.

WWF International has released a briefing paper on dealing with the phase-out of fossil fuels in Nationally Determined Contributions.

Australian news items in all issues of ESG Snapshot can be searched by relevant Sustainable Development Goal category. To do this, click on the '17 SDGs' link at the top of this web page, or on any of the SDG keys below.

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