Land-clearing wipes out $1bn taxpayer-funded emissions gains

Official data shows forest-clearing released 160m tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2015

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More than $1bn of public money being spent on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees and restoring habitat under the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy will have effectively been wiped out by little more than two years of forest-clearing elsewhere in the country, official government data suggests.

The $2.55bn emissions reduction fund pays landowners and companies to avoid emissions or store carbon dioxide using a reverse auction – the cheapest credible bids win. The government says it has signed contracts to prevent 124m tonnes of emissions through vegetation projects – mostly repairing degraded habitat, planting trees and ensuring existing forest on private land is not cleared.

Related: Cape York traditional owners call for land-clearing halt to protect burial sites

Related: Exclusive: legal concerns over plan to roll over forestry agreements without reviews