CANBERRA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Australia's indiscriminate forest clearing action has neutralized more than 754 million U.S. dollars spent on cutting greenhouse gas emissions since 2015, a federal government data showed on Tuesday.
The money invested into providing incentives for lower carbon releases, planting trees and restoring Australia's wildlife habitats under the Coalition's Direct Action climate policy has been cancelled out by two years of forest-clearing elsewhere in the country.
Figures released by the Australian government on Tuesday showed the clearing of forests across the nation has released more than 160 million tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2015.
The government had previously signed a contract to provide rewards for companies and landowners who avoided carbon releases, which prevented 124 million tonnes of emissions over the same period of time.
The Climate Campaign Manager for Australia's Wilderness Society, Glenn Walker, said the figures were alarming and might only get worse unless the government made changes.
"It's a disgrace that there is a massive public investment going into tree planting while the government sits back and not only watches but encourages the mass destruction of forests," Walker told the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.
Australian Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday that a government review last year confirmed that Australia had a comprehensive set of emissions reduction policies.
Frydenberg also said that the carbon dioxide reduction fund was internationally recognised as one of the world's largest domestic carbon offset markets.
However, Australia's total release of carbon gases has continued to rise in recent years, according to government research. In 2018 so far, there has been a 1.5 percent increase on CO2 emissions compared to the same period of time last year.
The Australian government said it remains confident of cutting greenhouse gas releases by 26 to 28 percent by 2030.
