The Federal Government is giving people until September 18, 2026, to provide feedback on the ditching of the Climate Active certification program.
The Government announced earlier this month that it was dropping the program, the certification of voluntary business claims that they are “carbon neutral”.
The decision also means the end of the Climate Active trademark.
Many large companies have already withdrawn from the program after widespread claims that it encouraged “greenwashing” of environmental data.
In a statement, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said “strong policy action from government, including setting ambitious but achievable climate targets, is driving corporate decarbonisation and superseding the need for Climate Active.”
“New mandatory climate disclosure requirements are helping to keep large Australian corporations publicly accountable for their climate action,” the statement said.
The decision is preliminary with the public able to provide feedback until 5pm on September 18. A final decision is expected to be announced before the end of 2026.
More information is available here.
The Parents for Climate welcomed the decision to close the Climate Active program and end the “risky practice” of certifying businesses’ voluntary carbon neutral climate claims.
“The national parent advocacy organisation has campaigned for over three years through a landmark court case, community advocacy, and an investigation into greenwashing by energy companies,” it said.
“(The decision) marks the end of a federal scheme that, until now, allowed companies to market fossil-fuel products as ‘carbon neutral’ on the strength of carbon offsets.”
Parents for Climate CEO Nic Seton said the decision meant the era of the “government-certified greenwashing” was over.
“Parents want to know which companies are genuinely cutting emissions, not just which ones buy so-called offsets,” Mr Seton said.
