Everything you need to know about Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs)

Australia’s new carbon market, the revised Safeguard Mechanism, launches this coming Saturday, 1st July.

For an in-depth review of how it works, the companies most likely to be affected, and the prospects for decarbonisation of the Australian economy, check out Australia's carbon market reforms get the green light.

This article looks in more detail about one particular aspect of the market - Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). ACCU’s are generated when qualified entities carry out activities that avoid or remove carbon emissions. Each ACCU is equivalent to one tonne of CO2e. They can then be sold to obligated emitters who are struggling to meet their target emission reduction.

It’s important to note that there is no single ACCU price. Just like the carbon credits that exist in the voluntary carbon market, ACCU trade across a range of different prices and depend upon the underlying methodology, the degree of co-benefits, and the relative balance between demand and supply for those credits.

Before we get to how the supply of ACCU’s will evolve under the revised Safeguard Mechanism, lets look at where ACCU supply has come from over the past few years.