CERT report 2024 highlights

The Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency (CERT) report 2024 highlights participating companies’ data and information for either the 2022–­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­23 financial year or the 2023 calendar year. 

2024 CERT report at a glance

• 22 companies participated in the 2024 CERT report, presenting a total of 63 commitments related to emissions reduction and renewable electricity use. 
• The participating companies represent a broad cross-section of Australia’s economy including energy, manufacturing, mining, retail, financial, transport, construction, and research sectors. Coverage included:
  • 3 of Australia’s biggest banks, 3 of Australia’s largest supermarkets and 5 of Australia’s largest real estate companies
  • 14% (51 million tonnes CO₂-e) of all scope 1 emissions and 6% (5 million tonnes CO₂-e) of all scope 2 emissions, as reported to the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) for the 2022-23 financial year.
• Of the 22 participating companies:
  • 21 have commitments to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier
  • 11 have scope 3 emissions reduction commitments
  • 11 have commitments to reach 100% renewable electricity use by 2030.
• Participating companies surrendered:
  • over 322,000 international carbon units 
  • over 129,000 Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) 
  • over 1.4 million large-scale generation certificates (LGCs). 

Trend analysis 2022–2024

With 3 years of data we can now track the progress of the 17 continuing companies. The analysis has been limited to these companies to avoid the data being skewed by companies exiting or entering the report.

• Average renewable electricity use has increased from 30% to 42% across the 3 years. To demonstrate their renewable electricity use, the 17 continuing companies have surrendered more large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) from 296,109 in 2022 to 963,770 in 2024. Onsite renewable generation (not credited with LGCs) also increased, from 15 GWh to 206 GWh.
• The overall number of voluntary offsets used has remained flat (from 351,156 to 353,110 across the 3 years), with the use of Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) declining year on year (from 153,560 to 39,157). This was balanced with increasing use of international units, primarily verified carbon units (VCUs).
• For these 17 companies, gross emissions, (emissions not including carbon offsets use), fell from 61 million tonnes CO₂-e to 55 million tonnes CO₂-e across the 3 years.
  • Total electricity consumption has modestly increased, with an average of 1.7 per cent increase per year. This increase has been compensated by a higher level of renewable electric use, indicating that gross reductions have largely been driven by sourcing renewable electricity.

2024 CERT Report Insights

The following interactive figures provide insights into the 22 companies participating in the 2024 CERT report:

• Figure 1 – Commitment types by assurance methods
• Figure 2 – Commitment ambition – emissions reduction commitments
• Figure 3 – Commitment ambition – renewable electricity consumption commitments
• Figure 4 – Surrendered certificates – Large-scale generation certificate (LGC) surrenders by technology type
• Figure 5 – Surrendered units – Carbon unit surrenders by unit type and method type

Commitment types by assurance methods

The 22 participating companies presented a total of 63 commitments in the 2024 CERT report, using a mixture of all three verification/assurance categories. The progress for a majority (80%) of renewable electricity consumption commitments are verified by CER data. 

Commitment ambition – emissions reduction commitments

Of the 43 emissions reduction commitments presented below, participating companies reported 23 net zero commitments, including 12 commitments to be net zero by 2030. A single company may have more than one net zero commitment representing different emissions scopes or reporting boundaries.

Commitment ambition – renewable electricity consumption commitments

Participating companies reported 14 renewable electricity consumption commitments in the 2024 CERT report. Of these, 13 companies included a goal of 100% renewable electricity use with 11 of these aiming to meet this goal by 2030.

Surrendered certificates – Large-scale generation certificate (LGC) surrenders by technology type

Participating companies reported surrendering 1,425,859 LGCs in the 2024 CERT report, with an additional 14,927 LGCs surrendered through GreenPower electricity purchases. Additional sources of renewable electricity include onsite renewables, and the portion of grid electricity that is renewable through the renewable energy target (RET).

Surrendered units – Carbon unit surrenders by unit type and method type

Just under a third of the carbon units surrendered by participating companies were Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs), with the remainder international units. All surrendered international units were verified carbon units (VCUs).