The Clean Energy Regulator’s (CER) latest Quarterly Carbon Market Report (QCMR) shows that Australia’s carbon market coupled with the reformed Safeguard Mechanism are assisting businesses to make strong contributions toward Australia achieving its emissions reduction targets.
In 2024, schemes administered by the CER are estimated to have reduced emissions by at least 69.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-e), up 8% from 2023. This is expected to rise to at least 72 Mt CO2-e in 2025. These are conservative estimates as they use the average emissions intensity of the electricity grid rather than assuming renewables are solely displacing coal and gas generation.
‘We issued a record 18.8 million Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) in 2024, with a total of 53.9 million ACCUs now held in the registry,’ CER Chair David Parker said.
‘We have also observed increased trading activity in Q4 of 2024 as safeguard facilities ensure they have adequate supply to meet their upcoming safeguard obligations by 31 March 2025.’
Aggregate 2023-24 covered emissions at safeguard facilities reduced to approximately 136 Mt CO2-e, down from 138.7 Mt CO2-e in 2022-23.
The reformed Safeguard Mechanism is operating as intended to encourage safeguard facilities to progressively reduce their industrial emissions at source. ACCUs and Safeguard Mechanism credit units will play an important role in allowing companies to comply with their safeguard obligations while they transition by implementing their decarbonisation projects.
‘Industry intelligence over the course of 2024 has revealed that many safeguard entities have advanced plans in place for decarbonisation. Others are earlier in the journey or face significant technological challenges,’ Mr Parker said.
2024 also saw total added renewables achieve a record year of 7.5 gigawatts (GW), up from 5.3 GW in 2023. Approved large scale power stations, mainly wind farms, contributed 4.3 GW to this record renewable generation capacity.
Installed rooftop solar capacity is likely to meet or exceed the previous record of 3.2 GW.
Looking ahead, the CER anticipates that renewable penetration in the National Electricity Market could reach 44% to 46% in 2025. This assumes a return to average generation conditions, particularly for wind and hydro.
For more detail, read the latest Quarterly Carbon Market Report.
On Friday 28 February 2025, the CER also released the 2023-24 National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting data which reports on corporations’ scope 1 and 2 emissions, energy production and energy consumption.