Carbon Credits and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2026: what it proposes

The short answer

Carbon Credits and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2026: what it proposes

The Carbon Credits and Other Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2026 is a government bill, introduced in the House of Representatives on 20 August 2026 under the Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water portfolio. It would amend the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 and the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard Act 2024 to strengthen the integrity, transparency and administration of Australia's carbon crediting, emissions reporting and vehicle efficiency schemes. The changes draw on the 2022 Chubb Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units and statutory reviews by the Climate Change Authority, and include a two-stage native title consent process for ACCU projects, a reformed integrity committee, a new method transition power for methods with critical integrity risks, and administrative date changes under the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard. As of 21 August 2026 the bill was before the House of Representatives with the second reading debate yet to be resumed; it has not been enacted.

This is a federal system guide. State constitutions, parliaments and local-government laws can allocate comparable functions differently.

The useful question is not only “what is the rule?” but also “who administers it, which document controls it, and when might it change?” That distinction prevents an accurate general explanation from becoming wrong advice in a particular election, chamber or policy setting.

Evidence review

What the bill would do

The bill is a package of reforms to three pieces of legislation: the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (the CFI Act), which establishes the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme; the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (the NGER Act), which underpins national greenhouse gas and energy reporting; and the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard Act 2024 (the NVES Act).

The explanatory memorandum, circulated by the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson MP, says the bill implements recommendations of the 2022 Independent Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units (the Chubb Review) and of the Climate Change Authority's statutory reviews of the ACCU Scheme in 2017, 2020 and 2023, together with administrative and operational improvements identified over more than a decade of implementation.

The government says the reforms aim to strengthen the integrity, transparency, governance and administration of the schemes as Australia moves toward its emissions reduction targets of 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and 62-70 per cent by 2035, on a pathway to net zero by 2050.

Evidence review

Native title consent changes for ACCU projects

The bill would expand the categories of eligible interest holders whose consent is required for a sequestration project or an area-based emissions avoidance project under the CFI Act to include registered native title claimants, and would establish a two-stage consent process for projects carried out on native title and claimed native title land.

Under the proposed approach, project proponents must obtain consent to an application for a project to be registered on native title or claimed native title land before a project can be declared, and ACCUs would not be issued until consent to how the project will be carried out is obtained and any conditions on the project's declaration are removed.

The explanatory memorandum says this is intended to strengthen recognition of the interests of First Nations peoples in the scheme, bringing it closer in line with recognised rights under the Native Title Act 1993 and principles of free, prior and informed consent. The bill would also clarify that State, Territory and Commonwealth Crown lands and land rights ministers do not have consent rights for projects on exclusive possession native title land that is Torrens system land or land rights land.

Evidence review

Committee and governance reforms

The bill would replace the existing Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee with a new independent Carbon Abatement Integrity Committee, while providing for continuity of its role, legal identity, appointments and decisions. The changes would strengthen conflict of interest requirements, prescribe relevant fields of expertise and require ongoing First Nations representation.

The Committee's functions would expand to include advising the Minister on priorities for the development or variation of methods, and new processes would enable it to review methods approaching expiry. Its independence and transparency would be strengthened through new powers to obtain independent advice, an extended maximum public consultation period, and a requirement to publish more of its advice and related documents, subject to appropriate protections.

Evidence review

Carbon purchasing, integrity and compliance

The bill would transfer responsibility for government purchasing of ACCUs from the Clean Energy Regulator to the Secretary of the relevant Department, with a delegation power to Senior Executive Service employees of the department or another Commonwealth agency (but not the Regulator), to separate purchasing from regulatory decisions and reduce perceived or actual conflicts of interest.

It would also replace the principle of purchasing carbon abatement at least cost with a value for money principle, allowing non-carbon benefits to be considered and increasing consistency with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and the Nature Repair Act 2023.

A new framework would allow the Minister to make a Method Transition Declaration where method transition threshold criteria are met, after advice from the Carbon Abatement Integrity Committee and public consultation. Once a declaration is in effect, projects using the affected method could not earn ACCUs unless they transition to a suitable alternative method.

The bill would extend the fit and proper person test to agents acting on behalf of ACCU project applicants, make insolvency a relevant rather than determinative consideration, strengthen relinquishment provisions to address over-crediting, and introduce an infringement notice regime for lower-level alleged contraventions, alongside modernised injunction provisions aligned with the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014.

Evidence review

NGER and NVES changes

Under the NGER Act, the bill would introduce a new regulation-making power to require publication of prescribed kinds of information submitted under the scheme, expand the Regulator's ability to remove a person from the National Greenhouse and Energy Register on its own initiative where a corporation has entered liquidation or no longer meets the definition of a controlling corporation, and address reporting gaps where a corporation is significantly delayed in applying for registration.

Under the NVES Act, the bill would adjust a set of statutory dates governing interim and final emissions values, the date to extinguish a liability, and the expiration of NVES units, so suppliers have the intended two years to address an interim emissions value. The explanatory memorandum says the amendments do not alter the headline limits in the NVES Act or which vehicles are covered.

Evidence review

Parliamentary status

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives and read a first time on 20 August 2026, and the second reading was moved the same day. The second reading debate was adjourned, with its resumption made an order of the day for the next sitting, according to the House Live Minutes for 20 August 2026.

It is a government bill under the Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water portfolio. The explanatory memorandum records that an exposure draft of the bill was released for public consultation on 30 April 2026, and that the ACCU Scheme and NGER amendments draw on earlier consultation including a discussion paper released on 25 August 2023 that attracted more than 750 participants.

As of 21 August 2026 the bill had not been enacted. It must pass both houses of Parliament and receive Royal Assent before any of its changes take effect. Progress can be followed on the Parliament of Australia bill page.

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