Overview
Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme process
The Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme is a government-regulated scheme that issues tradable carbon credits for verified emissions reductions or removals, helping businesses and the nation meet climate targets through credible, measurable abatement.
All draft methods under the ACCU Scheme must be assessed by the independent Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) to ensure methods comply with the Offsets Integrity Standards (OIS). If the ERAC finds a method does not meet the legislated OIS, the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, cannot make it. Before providing advice to the Assistant Minister, ERAC must publish a detailed outline of the draft method, open consultation for 28 days and consider public submissions provided through the department’s website. The feedback from public submissions will inform the ERAC’s assessment of whether the method complies with the legislated OIS.
Integrated Farm and Land Management (IFLM) method
The draft IFLM method is the first ACCU Scheme method to provide a modular framework for crediting multiple abatement activities on the same property. The method is designed to allow more activities, abatement estimation approaches and carbon pools to be added over time, including through the proponent led method development process.
The IFLM method builds on earlier ACCU Scheme vegetation methods and considers new science and technology and feedback from scientists, land managers, carbon service providers and the Clean Energy Regulator on the operation of existing permanent plantings and native forest regeneration ACCU Scheme projects.
The detailed outline of the draft IFLM method for consultation comprises a core framework with separate schedules for:
Three project activities:
Regeneration of native forest on cleared lands (legislatively drafted)
Reforestation by environmental or mallee plantings (legislatively drafted), and
Regeneration of native forest on suppressed land (currently in plain-English and to be legislatively drafted in 2026)
Two calculation approaches:
FullCAM-only (legislatively drafted), and
FullCAM-Measure hybrid (currently in plain-English and to be legislatively drafted in 2026).
The draft IFLM method has been released prior to the ERAC’s public consultation period to allow early review of the material. The 28-day consultation period will commence on 27 January 2026. Explanatory material provided with the consultation provides more detail on how the method intends to operate and highlights key issues for feedback during consultation.
