With regards to acquiring and purchasing carbon units under the carbon pricing mechanism, the Clean Energy Regulator has advised that “anyone who will acquit a liability by surrendering units will need an Australian National Registry of Emissions Units (ANREU) account in order to hold the units.
Other users have the option to hold units for trading and transfer but will not be expected to surrender units if they have no liability.
To hold units a person or business must have an ANREU account; carbon units will only be issued into these accounts. Units can be obtained by anyone with an ANREU account.
Units can be sourced from a number of locations:
- industry assistance schemes allocate free carbon units to certain industry groups
- purchased from the Clean Energy Regulator (either at a fixed price or through an auction)
- created through the Carbon Farming Initiative, and
- created under approved international schemes purchased from third parties or secondary markets.
A transaction log in an ANREU account provides the account holder with a record that the units have been issued”.
Purchasing units
“To be issued with carbon units, a person or business must have an ANREU account. Units will only be issued to an ANREU account.
Carbon units will be available for purchase in the lead up to both surrender dates in the fixed price period. They will be available for purchase from April (after submission of the Interim Emissions Number) until 15 June. They will again become available from 31 October through to 1 February.
Carbon units that are surrendered against the 2012-13 financial year will cost $23 each.
During the fixed price period, the carbon units are only valid for the vintage year that they were purchased for. After the final surrender date for a
particular vintage year, all remaining carbon units for that year will be cancelled”.
