Landfills that cut greenhouse gas emissions from organic waste will now qualify to earn offsets that they can sell to the government under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), the Department of the Environment announced Monday.

Project developers will be able to sell carbon cuts from projects using the Source Separated Organic Waste method in the next ERF auction, set for Apr. 27-28, the department said.

“The Source Separated Organic Waste method will help to reduce the more than 6.6 million tonnes of organic waste, including food and garden waste, which goes to landfill each year,” it added.

“Other recent innovative methods announced provide for projects in beef cattle, refrigeration and high efficiency commercial appliances to register under the fund.”

The A$2.55 billion fund has so far bought nearly 93 million tonnes of CO2e cuts over two auctions. However, a lack of fresh funding has made analysts predict the ERF is facing 9-12 months without any demand after two expected auctions are held later this year.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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