Overview of the Australian Government's Proposed CPRS

The Australian Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), intends to mandate liable parties to acquire and surrender eligible permits (Australian Emissions Units or International Kyoto Units) equal to the party’s annual GHG emissions from 1 July 2011.  

The CPRS will:

-       cap and reduce Australia’s emissions by 5% unconditionally by 2020

-       cover 75% of Australia’s emissions and all six Kyoto gases

-       include station-energy, transport, waste landfill, fugitive emissions and synthetic greenhouse gas manufacturing

-       allow forestry sector to opt into the scheme

-       exclude agriculture

-       be regulated by the Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority (ACCRA).

 

Companies, corporations, trusts, bodies politic and local governing bodies are deemed liable parties if:

-       the entity has operational control of a facility that directly (scope 1) emits 25,000 tonnes of CO_2-e or more

-       the entity cannot transfer this liability to another entity that has financial control 

-       the entity is an importer, manufacturer, producer, supplier of synthetic greenhouse gases (e.g. refrigerants) and/or

         eligible upstream fuels’ (e.g. diesel fuel).     

 

Biogas Projects

Liable entities will need to purchase carbon credits called Australian Emissions Units (AEUs) through auction and from domestic projects that generate AEUs. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCC) has recently announced that anaerobic-digestion projects that produce biogas will be eligible to produce permits under the scheme. Therefore if the scheme passes through the Senate, projects may be able to add a 'carbon' revenue stream to their projects where each credit is projected to be worth $26 in 2012/13 (Australian Treasury), and, potentially higher as the market matures. 

Below is an extract from Issues Insights March 2009 (ABARE, Australian Government) 

"Emissions of methane from managed manure can be reduced through the use of anaerobic digesters, which hold decomposing manure under warm anaerobic conditions to produce biogas which can be piped to an electricity generator or boiler. The digested solids can also be used as a high quality fertiliser. Anaerobic digesters are estimated to reduce methane emissions by about 50 to 75 per cent and can also reduce odours and reduce surface andgroundwater contamination (Bates 2001 in DeAngelo et al. 2003)"

 

Please contact SRELA to find out if your project is elible under the CPRS.