Australian National Registry of Emissions Units (ANREU)
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units (ANREU) is a secure electronic system designed to accurately track the location and ownership of emission units issued under the Kyoto Protocol and Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), issued under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) 2011 Act (CFI Act) and in the future, carbon credits issued under the Clean Energy Act 2011.
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011 (ANREU Act) and the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations 2011 provide the necessary details to support the administration of the ANREU and are consistent with the Kyoto Protocol rules. The Kyoto Protocol rules include:
- the rules for opening and closing accounts
- the different types of ANREU accounts
- procedures to cancel units
- application and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol rules
- the circumstances in which an entry in ANREU may be corrected or rectified
- information to be made available to the public
- the decisions which are subject to a merits review
- measures designed to maintain the integrity of the ANREU.
Concise descriptions of units
The following statements set out a concise description of the characteristics of Certified Emission Reductions, Emission Reduction Units, and Removal units. These statements are published, and will be kept up to date, under section 61 of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011. They are not a Product Disclosure Statement within the meaning of Part 7.9 of the Corporations Act 2001.
Supporting the Carbon Farming Initiative
With the commencement of the Carbon Faming Initiative (CFI) in December 2011, ANREU has been enhanced to allow for the issuance and management of ACCUs created through approved CFI projects. ANREU account holders will be able to receive, and transfer ACCUs within ANREU in the same way as eligible Kyoto Protocol units. Eligible ACCUs can be exchanged for certain Kyoto units held in the Australian Government's ANREU account, and these in turn may be sold to purchasers in overseas carbon markets where there is a demand for these units and the purchaser holds an account in a national registry connected through the International Transaction Log (ITL) managed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat.
Supporting the Kyoto Protocol
The ANREU is designed to meet one of Australia's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol requires each country with an emission reduction target to establish a national registry to ensure accurate accounting of the issuance, holding, transfer, acquisition, cancellation, retirement and carry over of Kyoto units.
The ANREU links with the international carbon market through the ITL. The ITL is managed by the UNFCCC Secretariat. It verifies the validity of transactions of Kyoto units including issuance, transfer, and acquisition between registries.
Kyoto Protocol requirements for national registries
The Australian Government has previously authorised legal entities to transfer and acquire Kyoto units using ANREU in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol rules. The ANREU Act and ANREU Regulations embed the Kyoto rules into Australian legislation including:
The above decisions of the Kyoto Protocol require Australia to maintain a list of entities authorised by the Australian Government to participate in international emissions trading and make that list available through ANREU. Australia is also required to make certain information publicly available, and to provide a publicly accessible user interface through the internet that allows people to query and view the information. Publicly available information includes the:
- holder of each account
- type of each account (holding, cancellation or retirement)
- commitment period with which a cancellation or retirement account is associated
- representatives of account holders
- full name, mailing address, phone number, fax number and email address of each account holder representative, and
- unit holdings and transaction information for each account holder.
Declaration of eligibility (clause 8.11)
Australia is in compliance with the emissions trading participation requirements under the Kyoto rules (as specified in Decision 3/CMP.1, annex, paragraphs 31 and 32, Decision 9/CMP.1, annex, paragraph 21 and Decision 11/CMP.1, annex, paragraph 2), as set out in the eligibility list maintained by the Secretariat.
Education, Compliance and Enforcement
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Act 2011 (ANREU Act) came into effect on 8 December 2011 and is administered by the Carbon Credits Administrator (the Administrator).
The Administrator’s approach to facilitating compliance with the ANREU legislation and relevant sections of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Criminal Code) is set out in the Education, Compliance and Enforcement Policy.
Encouraging CFI participants and ANREU registry account holders to voluntarily comply, and handling contraventions appropriately, is the underpinning philosophy upon which this policy is founded.
History of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units
The following table provides a short history of key events in the development of ANREU.
| Date |
Milestone |
| January 2008 |
Request for tender process commenced to procure a 'national registry'. |
| 28 May 2008 |
Request for tender issued by the department. |
| 24 September 2008 |
National registry contract awarded to PQA (now SRA). |
| 19 December 2008 |
ANREU initialised with the UNFCCC ITL emissions trading framework. |
| 14 July 2009 |
Formal notification for Australia to issue 2 957 579 143 AAUs (Kyoto Protocol units) to the Australian Government ANREU holding account. |
| 28 July 2009 |
Australia's AAUs (Assigned Amount Unit) issued into ANREU under instruction from the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong. |
| 1 September 2009 |
ANREU opened to authorised parties, for organisations or individuals to apply to open accounts and participate in the domestic and international trade of Kyoto units. |
| 7 December 2011 |
The ANREU augmented to allow for ACCU's created under approved CFI projects to be issued and traded. ANREU moved from an initiative established under the Commonwealth's executive power to a legislative framework with the introduction of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011. |