What are ACCU's, what can you do with them and where can you do it?
What is an ACCU?
In Australia, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) issues Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to registered carbon projects under the ACCU Scheme (previously Emissions Reduction Fund) on completion of a successful project offsets report detailing the amount of avoided emissions or stored carbon.
1 ACCU = 1 Tonne of CO2e sequestered from the atmosphere.
What's the little 'e'? CO2e means Carbon Dioxide Equivalent and describes different greenhouse gases in a common unit.
1 tonne of Carbon, equals to 3.67 tonnes CO2e, which is the equivalent of 3.67 ACCUs.
What are my options when I generate ACCUs?
When you generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) through soil carbon sequestration practices, you have several options. You could sell ACCUs on the carbon market, providing a financial return for your carbon sequestration efforts. Alternatively, you could use ACCUs to offset on farm carbon emissions from other activities, demonstrating your farm's commitment to environmental sustainability. Holding ACCUs could also enhance the value and marketability of your farm produce by showcasing your contribution to climate action and sustainable farming practices.
How this works in practice is:
As the operator of the carbon project, you have the choice of what to do with your ACCUs. The generated ACCUs are credited to the nominated ANREU account. The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units (ANREU) is administered by the Clean Energy Regulator.
- Keep/Hold: ACCUs don’t have a use by date. You can hold ACCUs in a special type of account called an ANREU account until you decide what you’d like to do with them.
- Sell: AgriProve’s sales contract has the flexibility for ACCUs to be sold several different ways – but in all cases you decide.
- Sell forward for a set price.
- Sell on the spot market.
- Sell privately at a price agreed with a buyer at the time of sale.
- Retire: Use the generated ACCUs to offset and reduce your own emissions on farm. You may even be able to achieve carbon neutrality.
Retirement is the process that any emitter goes through post the purchase/or generation of ACCUs to reduce their emissions. By retiring ACCUs, it means it has been used and the carbon benefit it represents has been claimed by the ACCU owner.
Retiring your carbon credits requires you to ensure that they are removed from the marketplace and labelled as ‘retired’ in any records or registry.
You cannot claim carbon neutrality just by owning carbon credits. The act of retirement is required to officially offset the emissions.
Is the ACCU market in Australia only, or is there a global market/price?
There is an emerging marketplace for carbon offsets (ACCUs) from projects within Australia.. However, there is not yet a common carbon market where Australian Carbon Credit Units can be exported and sold at a common global commodity carbon price.
What change in % soil organic carbon (SOC) does a project have to make to earn ACCUs?
The percentage change in SOC needed for ACCUs to be generated are detailed in the below table.
