The federal government has spent another $557 million purchasing 45 million tonnes of carbon abatement at the second emissions reduction fund auction.
The government paid on average $12.25 per tonne from the $2.55 billion taxpayer-funded kitty at last week's reverse auction, bringing the total purchase to date to 93 million tonnes.
The Climate Institute believes continuing that trend would account for just two per cent of the emission cuts needed by 2030 for Australia to do its fair share to limit global warming to two degrees.
Chief executive John Connor said while the auction may be funding some important projects, the nation's largest polluters still weren't showing up.
"While we see an expanded list of projects getting funding, we don't see anything significant in Australia's largest polluting sector, electricity," he said on Thursday.
The ERF is part of the government's direct action policy, which uses taxpayer money to pay polluters not to pollute.
Mr Connor said the fund wasn't going to do enough heavy lifting and was merely a supporting policy.
The Australian Greens compared the auction result to the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland, saying the purchase represented just one per cent of the mine's predicted pollution.
Greens senator Larissa Waters said the policy was also a "massive cost shift" from polluters onto taxpayers.
The government last year scrapped Labor's carbon tax, which forced big polluters to pay per tonne of carbon.
"Many of the projects paid for today were already underway under the carbon price with polluters funding them," she said.
"Now taxpayers are footing the bill for these mostly landfill and land-based abatement projects."
Carbon market analysts RepuTex said the auction produced another strong result, but the policy wouldn't slow Australia's emissions growth.
"The inability of the entire policy to curb emissions growth is an ongoing problem," executive director Hugh Grossman said.
"If emissions continue to increase, all of that growth will ultimately need to be made up for later."
Land-use projects got 80 per cent of the funding, with vegetation and savannah burning winning 70 per cent.
Industry participation increased from the first auction, with companies like Wesfarmers and Adelaide Brighton Cement winning seven per cent of the funded projects.
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