A total of $32m in "offsets", to be paid by developers, will be required over 40 years to bolster the health of the reef and protect sea turtles.
If we are to have a real conversation on this with the opposition, then they've got to bring offsets, they've got to bring proposals to the table if they want to see spending on this area".
Apple offsets its data centres' power use by investing in renewable energy capacity.
It is reasonably bitter, which thankfully offsets its potentially cloying sweetness, but if you are offered a bottle of this at a barbecue, opt for wine.
Saab says the tourism project cost much more, and suggested that it was up to the authorities to decide what value they put on what it achieved.This sleight-of-hand helps to explain why industry executives are better disposed towards offsets in private than in public, says Ms Marshall.
India's auditor-general recently concluded that some offsets have produced no value for the country.Judging performance is hard because of a lack of openness.
Indirect (non-defence) offsets include everything from backing new technologies or business parks to building hotels, donating to universities and even supporting condom-makers.
A study published in February by Transparency International, an anti-graft group, found that a third of governments that use offsets neither audit them nor impose due-diligence requirements on contractors.Worse, accounting rulemakers have failed to impose any requirement to disclose offset liabilities.
Defence firms have lobbied successfully for offsets to remain classified as "proprietary", so they do not have to disclose their obligations.
These are assembling ever more creative packages, including, for instance, helping procuring countries to use contractors' offset obligations as collateral for loans, backed by the "performance bonds" that firms set aside to cover unfulfilled obligations.These middlemen are offsets' most vocal defenders.
The European Commission is trying to impose a ban on all offsets in EU-to-EU contracts, and on indirect offsets when the supplier is from outside the union.
