The ARA has responded to a public consultation by the Climate Change Authority, who are preparing to undertake a review of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, which enables the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme.
The ACCU scheme provides an incentive mechanism to reduce emissions, however, methodologies under the ACCU scheme have been historically underutilised by the rail industry. The ARA’s submission focused on opportunities to improve the scheme for better uptake by the rail industry, including:
- incentivising mode shift by providing ACCU methodologies suitable to rail freight customers and rail industry operators,
- extending the crediting period to better suit the long asset lifespan of rail rollingstock technology; and
- opportunities to streamline interaction between the ACCU scheme and the Safeguard Mechanism.