We administer Australia’s world-leading carbon, renewable energy and environmental markets. As steward of these government-created environmental markets and the ecosystem around them, we hold an interest in deep, liquid, transparent and accessible markets.
Unit and Certificate Registry
The Unit and Certificate Registry (the registry) houses the units and certificates administered by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER). It provides a digital record and is the source of truth of all holdings and transactions of units and certificates.
The registry is built on Trovio’s CorTenX – a scalable, customisable and secure technology for environmental assets. It uses an application programming interface (API) first design.
The information on the registry facilitates trading in carbon, renewable energy and nature repair markets, fostering market innovation and growth. Note that this is not a trading platform, and trading of units is not possible within the registry.
The registry will continue to be upgraded with new functionality and other certificates will be onboarded.
Find out about the features of the Unit and Certificate Registry.
Registry interoperability project
The registry interoperability project responds to a growing need for data transparency and transaction efficiency.
The project originated from responses to our industry consultation on the Australian Carbon Exchange proposal. Our purpose is to strengthen connectivity between the registry and external account holder systems and trading platforms.
Interoperability will complement but not replace access via Online Services, giving users different pathways to interact with our systems. CER systems include:
- the Unit and Certificate Registry
- the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme project register
- the Renewable Energy Certificate registry
- Data Services.
We aim to refine and build API connectivity between user systems and the registry as supported by our legal, technical and security requirements.
We are continuing consultation with stakeholders to examine:
- draft principles of interoperability
- service levels required for APIs
- various models for interoperability
- which certificates, units or registers we should prioritise for interoperability
- a roadmap for future registry development.
Background on the Australian Carbon Exchange
The Australian Carbon Exchange proposal started in 2021 with the aim to:
- facilitate a centralised, standardised and regulated marketplace known as the Australian Carbon Exchange, making it easier to trade Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs)
- develop a new, modernised Unit and Certificate Registry with the ability to connect to other platforms and exchanges.
Industry consultation
We conducted the carbon market infrastructure for holding and trading certificates and units consultation to help identify industry needs and priorities. This examined a carbon exchange model that:
- supports market liquidity
- provides greater transparency and standardisation
- increases market access
- encourages the development of more sophisticated financial products and instruments.
While there was support for exchange trading of ACCUs, the proposed exchange trading model was unsuitable for the market. The consultation established a consensus for interoperability with CER systems. As a result, we’re focusing on connectivity with the registry to third-party systems instead of an Australia Carbon Exchange.