The Australian federal government has officially begun to accept proposals for the development of new carbon crediting project methods outside of government, as it looks to boost supply and innovation.
Individuals, groups or organisations will now be able to submit method proposals for carbon abatement, which would generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) if approved and developed.
Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen made the announcement on 21 May during lobby group Carbon Market Institute (CMI)'s Carbon Farming Industry Forum in Cairns, Queensland. "The proponent-led model aims to encourage more innovative approaches to carbon abatement and will help to boost the supply of ACCUs to support our net zero ambition," Bowen said.
The development of new ACCU framework methods has been until now led by the federal government, but this has proved "too slow," CMI's chief executive John Connor said today. None of the five new method priorities for 2022, announced in October 2021, have yet been finalised, Connor said.
Opening up the method development process was one of the 16 recommendations made by an independent panel led by the country's former chief scientist Ian Chubb which reviewed the ACCU scheme in 2022-23.
Proponents will need to follow a five-stage process, starting with the submission of new ideas for methods or changes to existing methods followed by an expression of interest (EOI) to the Emission Reduction Assurance Committee (Erac), the statutory body responsible for ensuring the integrity of Australia's carbon crediting framework. The Erac will accept EOIs in rounds, with the current one open until 12 July.
The Erac will use triage criteria to assess EOIs, including scale of abatement, proposal complexity and whether it would incentivise innovation. The committee will publish its assessment of EOIs on a so-called method development tracker, with successful proponents moving on to the development phase. Finally, the Erac will publish draft methods for public consultation before recommending them to the climate change and energy minister.
The proponent-led model announcement comes at a time of increasing concern about future ACCU supply, as the development of new methods or method variations by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has been taking longer than originally expected — partly because it has been also focusing on implementing the recommendations from the Chubb review.
