Carbon Market Report – Australia’s First Carbon Professionals Survey

In many ways 2023 has been a defining year for carbon markets in Australia and internationally. With significant improvements to key policies and methodologies, a relatively stable platform is in place to support the transition to net-zero. 

Following the implementation of the Chubb Review recommendations and the changes to the Safeguard Mechanism coming into force on 1 July, Australia’s carbon market is continuing to improve.

To get an indication of how Australia’s environmental and sustainability professionals view the carbon market reforms and their industry’s decarbonisation progress, we commissioned Freshwater Strategy to conduct the survey.

The results make it clear that although the majority of respondents believe Australia’s emissions policy is heading in the right direction, there is still work to be done.

In particular, despite Australia’s best efforts to decarbonise, carbon credits will be necessary if we are to achieve our climate targets. With the survey finding two-in-three (66%) respondents have purchased or plan to purchase Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and almost half (47%) indicating the same for international credits.