Results updated on 7 July 2023
The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Specified Tree Planting) Rule 2023 (the Amendment Rule) was registered on 7 July 2023.
The Amendment Rule will repeal the ‘water rule’ on 1 June 2024 to allow plantation and farm forestry projects to participate in Australia's Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme, without needing to meet additional water interception conditions.
The Amendment Rule also allows projects to be registered as ACCU projects without needing to meet the water interception conditions before the water rule is repealed. This is conditional on those projects not starting before 1 June 2024.
Read the Amendment Rule and the explanatory statement.
Published responses
View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.
Overview
We are seeking feedback on potential changes to the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 (the CFI Rule).
Under the CFI Rule, plantation forestry and farm forestry projects in high rainfall locations need to meet water interception conditions (the water rule) before they can participate in the Emissions Reduction Fund.
The proposed changes would repeal section 20AB of the CFI Rule, which would remove the water rule. This is part of the Australian Government’s commitments to:
improve carbon farming opportunities
enable investment in new timber plantations.
Consultation documents
We invite written submission to the proposed removal of the water rule [196KB PDF] [65KB DOCX]
