Thursday, 27 August 2026

Coal is the largest single consumer of carbon credits under Australia's Safeguard Mechanism and is close to absorbing every available source of methane-related credits, according to IEEFA.

The finding lands as Australia's federal government reviews the Safeguard Mechanism, the country's principal tool for cutting industrial greenhouse gas emissions, methane from coal mining included.

IEEFA analyst Andrew Gorringe counts 68 coal mines among Australia's most emissive industrial facilities covered by the scheme. That concentration puts a single commodity sector at the centre of compliance demand in a market designed to cover industry broadly.

The supply side does not match. IEEFA describes an Australian carbon market dominated by land-based projects aimed at sequestering carbon dioxide, with little on offer to offset methane. Coal mine methane is released during extraction, so credits generated by soil and vegetation projects are the instruments available to a sector whose emissions profile they were not built for.

Gorringe notes the mining industry exports roughly 80% of its products while carrying the highest emissions during production. The output is combusted offshore; the production emissions, and the compliance obligation attached to them, stay onshore.

The review gives the government the opening to decide whether that arrangement holds. IEEFA's framing is that coal demand is skewing the credits market, and the scarcity point for methane-related credits is close rather than distant.

Coal mining is the heaviest user of carbon credits in Australia's flagship industrial emissions scheme, accounting for 49% of all credits surrendered under the Safeguard Mechanism and nearly 2.5 times the volume used by the next largest sector, oil and gas, according to IEEFA.

The finding lands as Australia's federal government reviews the Safeguard Mechanism, described by IEEFA as the country's main instrument for cutting industrial greenhouse gas emissions, including methane from coal mining.

Coverage is set by a size test: facilities emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent a year fall inside the scheme, IEEFA said. On that basis, 68 coal mines sit among the country's most emissive industrial facilities captured by the mechanism.

That catchment pulls in most of the sector. About 88% of Australia's total reported carbon emissions from coal mining are managed under the Safeguard Mechanism, according to Safeguard data cited by IEEFA.

Methane is where the concentration is sharpest. Coal mining accounts for 86% of the methane emissions covered by the scheme, IEEFA said.

Emissions from the sector have not fallen. Coal mining's covered emissions rose 0.4% in 2023-24 to 31.8 million tonnes in FY2024-25, of which 19.5 million tonnes came from methane, according to IEEFA.

The combination matters for the review now under way. A sector responsible for most of the scheme's covered methane and holding flat on emissions is simultaneously the dominant buyer of the offsets that allow facilities to meet their obligations without cutting output at the source.

Otovo ASA has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire PV Hawaii, a solar services company based in Ewa Beach, according to Solar Builder. The trade publication describes Otovo as a Norwegian behind-the-meter energy firm.

PV Hawaii was founded in 2016 and handles solar repair work along with warranty and inspection services across Oahu, Solar Builder reported. The target is a service and maintenance business rather than an installer of new capacity.

Otovo's footprint covers 17 U.S. states and 15 markets in Europe, per Solar Builder. The letter of intent remains non-binding, and Solar Builder did not report closing terms.

Service-side acquisitions of this type give a residential solar platform an existing technician base and warranty book in a market it does not yet cover directly. On Oahu, that work spans repair, warranty and inspection jobs on systems already on rooftops.