Project reporting and audits

To be eligible for Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs), you must regularly report on your project.

You also need to have your project audited to ensure the abatement reported is accurate.

Project reporting

You must complete an ACCU Scheme project report and crediting form in Online Services for every reporting period. Use this form to report on your project and apply for ACCUs.

Check your project's method

Each method sets out what information you must include in your report, as well as specific instructions on how to calculate abatement. Make sure you understand the reporting and record-keeping requirements for your project's method.

You need to provide:

an eligible offsets report covering the reporting period
a signed application for ACCUs
an audit report, if required by your audit schedule
supporting documentation specific to your method (for example, a SavBAT report for savanna burning methods).

Processing times

We assess applications for ACCUs against the eligibility requirements for your project's method.

We will take reasonable steps to process crediting applications within 90 days.

Sometimes we request further information from you. If you don't provide this information, we may refuse to assess your report and will be unable to issue ACCUs.

Mapping requirements

If your project is under an area-based method, you must supply geospatial data.

Find out more about mapping requirements.

Reporting period

You can choose when to report on your project, subject to minimum and maximum reporting periods. You must report at least every:

2 years for emissions avoidance projects
5 years for sequestration projects.

At minimum, a reporting period must cover either:

one month, if net abatement for the period is 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO₂-e) or more
a 6-month period, if net abatement for the period is less than 2,000 t CO₂-e.

The first reporting period begins at the start of your project’s crediting period. Each new reporting period begins immediately after the previous reporting period. You must submit a project report within 6 months of the end of each reporting period, unless the method specifies otherwise.

All projects must submit offsets reports throughout the entire crediting period. Some sequestration projects must also continue to submit offsets reports for the duration of the permanence period. Find out more about post-crediting period obligations for sequestration projects.

Late reporting

You must submit project reports on time, regardless of whether you are applying for ACCUs at the same time.

If you can't submit your project report on time, you must notify us at least 3 months before the reporting deadline.

We don't always approve requests to report late – we assess each request on its merits. After the first project report, we won't accept further delays in providing project reports.

Late reporting is a serious breach of the law. If you don't submit your report by the deadline, you may fail the fit and proper person test. This could result in your projects being revoked and affect your right to be issued ACCUs. It will also expose you to the risk of a civil penalty order being made against you. We may take action against late reporting or failure to report. Find out more about our compliance approach.

If your project has unfulfilled conditions about eligible interest holder consents or regulatory approval, ACCUs will not be issued.

Audits

All audits need to establish reasonable assurance that the abatement achieved and reported on by a project is accurate. We adopt a risk-based approach to streamline audit requirements while upholding the integrity of ACCUs.

Where a project report must include an audit, we won't issue ACCUs unless the audit is provided.

Audit types

Initial audits

You must submit an initial audit report with your first offset report. Initial audit reports give us confidence that your project is being run in accordance with the legislative requirements.

The initial audit must cover a period of 6 months, with the following details:

project registration and assessment of the forward abatement estimate
offsets report for the first reporting period, including the accuracy of the abatement measured to date
operation of the project
all other matters relating to the establishment and operation of the project in accordance with the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 and the relevant method.

Subsequent audits

You must submit subsequent audit reports as set out in your project audit schedule.

Subsequent audits aim to provide reasonable assurance that the:

project is maintaining compliance with legislative requirements
abatement achieved and reported by a project is accurate.

Subsequent audits cover a minimum reporting period of 12 months.

Section 214 audits

If we have reasonable grounds to suspect there has been non-compliance with scheme legislation, we may require you to undertake a compliance audit under section 214 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. We will provide you with written notice of this decision.

You must pay for the compliance audit. You can make a request for reimbursement if both:

the audit returns no evidence of non-compliance
you can demonstrate that you would experience financial hardship if you were not reimbursed.

Section 215 audits

As part of our regular audit program, or where we have a particular interest in compliance aspects of your project, we may undertake an audit under section 215 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011.

If we initiate a section 215 audit, we will:

give you written notice at a reasonable time before the audit is to be undertaken
appoint an audit team leader
pay for the audit.

This type of audit is also used to provide assurance that human-induced regeneration projects are meeting gateway check requirements.

Threshold audits

You must provide a threshold audit with an offsets report if you claim more than 100,000 tCO2-e as the net abatement amount for a reporting period.

The audit must cover:

whether the offsets report for the reporting period has been prepared in accordance with scheme legislation
any other matter notified in writing by us.

Notify us as soon as possible if you believe you will need to undertake a threshold audit for your project. We can advise you of the audit scope required.

If you submit an audit before getting advice on the audit scope, you may have to complete additional audits. This can delay application processing, lead to additional costs and require you to produce a revised report.

Qualified or other conclusion audits

If a previous audit does not provide reasonable assurance conclusion, we may request that you undertake an audit to confirm that the issue was resolved.

The audit must demonstrate that the:

issue in the previous audit has been appropriately addressed
the project has been operated and implemented in accordance with scheme legislation.

We may also notify you in writing of any other matters to be covered by the audit.

Forest cover audits

You must complete a forest cover audit for a regeneration project if your offsets report will contain one or more carbon estimation areas that have passed their forest cover assessment date in that reporting period.

The audit must detail whether all relevant carbon estimation areas have attained forest cover by or before the end of the reporting period.

A forest cover audit may not be necessary if a previous audit report confirms the requirements relating to forest cover attainment have been satisfied.

Audit schedule

We issue an audit schedule to each ACCU Scheme project when we declare the project. This sets out:

the number of scheduled audits
which offsets reports must be accompanied by a scheduled audit
the period that subsequent audits must cover.

The number of scheduled audits for a project is based on the annual average abatement that the project will generate, according to the project’s forward abatement estimate. This is calculated using the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Audit Thresholds) Instrument 2025. Most projects will be subject to 3 to 5 scheduled audits.

Project audit schedules may need to be updated following a change in project management. This can be instigated by us, or by you.

The decision to vary an audit schedule is at our discretion – this will only be granted where project compliance is assured and maintained. Contact us to propose a change to your project audit schedule.

We may vary the audit schedule for a project under the following circumstances.

If you request your project to be treated as an alternative assurance project, we will issue an updated audit schedule. In some cases, the project will not be subject to any scheduled audits.

Where a project no longer meets the conditions for an alternative assurance project, we will issue a varied audit schedule as the required number of scheduled audits will change.

You must conduct a threshold audit if claiming more than 100,000 tCO₂-e as the net abatement amount for a given reporting period.

Where a threshold audit and a subsequent audit are required for the same reporting period, we may consider removing the subsequent audit from the project audit schedule.

If a threshold audit coincides with a scheduled audit, the same audit report may be provided for both audits. You will first need to seek approval from us to combine the audits. The audit report must state that it meets the requirements of both audit types.

The forward abatement estimate may vary over the project’s lifetime due to changes to the project.

We may agree to vary an audit schedule if the updated forward abatement estimate places the project in a different audit threshold.

You should seek to have ACCUs issued in the reporting period where a subsequent audit is provided.

We may seek to vary the audit schedule for a project where both of the following apply:

you will not claim ACCUs for a reporting period
an audit is required to accompany the offsets report for that reporting period.

In this case, contact us as early as possible to ensure your audit schedule can be varied.

When a project is varied to a different or updated method, the length of the project’s crediting period may change. This is particularly relevant where the method has undergone a crediting period extension review.

Where the length of a project’s crediting period changes, we may seek to vary the audit schedule to ensure:

audits are scheduled appropriately over the whole crediting period
the project is subject to a suitable number of subsequent audits.

Alternative assurance

Alternative assurance projects are subject to fewer scheduled audits due to their deemed low risk. These projects instead have other compliance checks.

You can request for your project to be an alternative assurance project if it meets the eligibility requirements in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Audit Thresholds) Instrument 2025.

If your project is an alternative assurance project at the date we declare it, you will be issued an audit schedule reflecting the altered audit arrangements. A project that becomes an alternative assurance project following declaration will be issued an updated audit schedule.

There are 3 classes of projects eligible for alternative assurance. If approved, they will have the following audit requirements:

Class	Number of scheduled audits
Low-risk plantation forestry projects	One
Low-risk environmental plantings 2014 projects (closed method)	None
Low-risk environmental plantings 2024 projects	None

New classes of alternative assurance projects

Our Board decides on the classes of projects that are eligible for alternative assurance arrangements, per the assessment framework for alternative assurance proposals.

Public consultation will be undertaken before a decision to classify a new alternative assurance project type.

You can submit a proposal for a new class of alternative assurance project by emailing enquiries@cer.gov.au.

Choosing an auditor

All ACCU Scheme project audits must be undertaken by a registered category 2 greenhouse and energy auditor. You can find a list of auditors with their company, location and conditions of registration on the Register of Greenhouse and Energy Auditors.

We recommend you engage an auditor early when developing your project. This allows you to establish costs and sound reporting and record-keeping processes from the beginning of your project. You are responsible for audit costs.

You must make all necessary documents and information available to the auditor. This includes data records, receipts and other supporting documentation.

We will have more confidence in your project if you engage at least 2 auditors from different companies over the life of your project. For example, for a project with 3 audits, you should engage an auditor to complete 2 audits, and a second auditor from another company to complete the other one. It's less likely you will be selected for additional audits if you follow this process.

You may also want to consider hiring a consultant to help develop your project. The auditor and consultant should not be the same person or entity – this is to avoid conflicts of interest, which undermine the integrity of audits under the ACCU Scheme.

For more details, view our webinar on audits of area-based methods under the ACCU Scheme.

Notification requirements

You must actively monitor and manage your project and notify us of key events. This includes when:

a previously declared project proponent no longer has the legal right to run the project
the project is affected by a natural disturbance that causes a significant reversal of carbon stocks
the project proponent becomes aware that a previously submitted offsets report contains an error which affects net abatement calculations.

Methods may also contain specific notification requirements for projects.

The timeframe for notifying us of a change in the project depends on the specific legislative requirement.

The easiest way to notify us of an event is through the Notify the Regulator form in Online Services. We will consider the notification and advise if any further action is required.