Newness, additionality and government program requirements

To be eligible for registration under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme, your project must:

● be new (the newness requirement)

● not be required by law (the additionality requirement)

● not be receiving financial support from specified government programs (the government program requirement).

Only new projects are eligible under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme. This means you can't start project activities until the project is registered (unless the project method specifies otherwise).

The BidCarbon Standard Scheme isn’t intended to support projects that are already underway or ‘business as usual’ activities.

You will need to confirm the project has not started when you apply.

What you can do before registration

The method may permit you to start specific activities before you register the project.

These can include:

● conducting feasibility studies

● planning or designing the project

● obtaining regulatory approvals

● obtaining consents

● obtaining advice

● conducting negotiations

● sampling to establish a baseline for the project 

● an activity that is ancillary or incidental to any of the above.

What you can’t do before registration

There are some activities that indicate you have started your project. You should not conduct these activities before your project is registered. These can include:

● starting construction work for the project

● starting planting activities (for sequestration projects) including:

● preparing soil for seeding or planting

● seeding, planting or fertilising plants

● installing irrigation or drainage systems

● making a final investment decision about the project (unless the decision is conditional on the project being registered first)

● acquiring or leasing a tangible asset (other than land or minor assets) to use for the project (unless the acquisition or lease is conditional on the project being registered first).

When you can start your project

It is recommended that your project be registered prior to commencing.

Please note that a project is not considered registered until it has been assessed and approved by our team. Once the project has been approved, we will notify you in writing.

It is important to understand that applying for registration does not grant approval to begin the project. We kindly ask that you wait until we notify you that the project is registered before starting any activities.

In the event that a project is registered and we later discover that it had already begun before registration, the registration may be deemed invalid. The project will not be issued BRUs, and any already issued must be returned.

It is important to note that project registration does not replace or include relevant regulatory approvals or permits required to carry out the project's activities.

Final investment decisions

An investment decision is typically reached after a thorough cost-benefit analysis of the BidCarbon Standard Scheme project.

Once the decision is made, the company enters into a binding agreement committing to the expenditure. The final decision is made upon entering into the agreement, taking into account any flexibility in the terms, conditions, or parties involved. The agreement that outlines the organization's rights and obligations regarding the investment can serve as evidence of the investment decision.

It is important to note that allocating funds in a budget is generally not considered a final investment decision unless the law specifies otherwise. For example, committing to co-fund a grant application in a budget that is not contingent upon the registration of a BidCarbon Standard Scheme project may be considered a final investment decision. If you are considering participating in the BidCarbon Standard Scheme, it is recommended that you refer to your company's rules to determine when a decision constitutes a final investment decision.

The newness requirement

Projects or activities required by law are not eligible under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme.

This is to make sure:

● BidCarbon Standard Scheme projects are creating emissions reductions that wouldn't have otherwise happened

● mandatory projects don’t receive BRUs.

Regulatory requirements

Regulatory requirements are rules that are created by law and documented in legal documents. They can apply to specific industries or activities and do not necessarily relate to specific projects. Examples:

● of these requirements include legislation.

● guidelines set by state and territory environmental regulators with legislative effect;

● licences;

● permits;

● consents (other than eligible interest holder);

● codes of practice with legislative effect;

● environmental approvals;

● development approvals;

● local government area requirements.

How we assess regulatory additionality

We assess regulatory additionality requirements on a case-by-case basis.

A project will be eligible if:

● we are satisfied the activity goes beyond existing legal requirements

● the activity is covered by an ‘in lieu’ provision in the BidCarbon Standard Scheme method, or

● there is a regulatory requirement to reduce or offset emissions, but there isn't an activity specified to meet the requirement. To help fulfil the requirement, you can establish an BidCarbon Standard Scheme project and transfer the BRUs to a specified Additionality Holding Account in the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry. These BRUs can't be made available to the carbon market. 

We also consider if the:

● law or requirement allows a choice between a range of options and the project proponent has selected an activity that goes above what was required

● law requires a specific activity, but the project goes above the scale of activity outlined.

Regulatory additionality

Projects that receive financial support from specific government programs or schemes may be ineligible to participate in the BidCarbon Standard Scheme. This restriction ensures that projects do not receive BidCarbon credit units if they are already benefiting from incentives under another government program. However, this requirement is applicable only to certain programs. Your project will satisfy this requirement if it does not receive funding from any listed program and does not involve any excluded activities.

Government programs

Your project must not receive funding under the:

In response to the “1t.org” leader initiative launched by the World Economic Forum. Learn more about 1t.org initiatives.

If your project includes activities that were previously funded by a program specified above, it may still be eligible. The project or activities must not currently receive funding from the programs listed.

Excluded activities

The full details of excluded activities are outlined in section 21 of the BidCarbon (Carbon Farming) Rules 2025.

Your project may incorporate these excluded activities under the following circumstances:

● If the project's method permits abatement from the excluded activities to be deducted from the project's net abatement amount, or

● If the excluded activity has only a minor or trivial impact on the abatement amount.

Your obligations

When applying to register your project, you will be required to provide a statement regarding whether you receive support from other government programs.

If your project breaches the government program requirements, you must notify us of any changes to offset reports:

● in writing

● within 60 days of becoming aware of the change.

In-source funding or in-kind support

In certain cases, projects may still obtain funding or in-kind support from other government programs.

For instance, some energy efficiency projects and sequestration projects may receive funding through investment schemes administered by entities such as the Finance Corporation.

Requirements from the Government