National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026

Legislative Authority

Section 77 of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

For items 1, 3, 4 and 5 of Schedule 1 of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (Amendment Regulations), section 7 of the Act provides a definition of “energy” to mean “fuel, or any other energy commodity, of a kind specified in the regulations”.

For item 2 of Schedule 1 of the Amendment Regulations, subsections 19(7), 22G(3) and 22X(5) of the Act provide that regulations “may specify different requirements for different circumstances” for reports to be given to the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) relating to the greenhouse gas emissions, energy production and energy consumption from the operation of a facility during the whole or part of a financial year.

Purpose

The purpose of the Amendment Regulations is to support decarbonisation by enabling National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) reports to more accurately reflect scope 1 emissions reductions associated with biomass-derived fuels. The Amendment Regulations do this by updating the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008 (Principal Regulations) to capture bioLPG as an alternative low-emissions primary fuel type. This enables facilities to report bioLPG consumption separately from fossil LPG. In addition, the Amendment Regulations creates a new category of co-processed liquid fuels to enable reporting of fuels produced from mixed fossil and biomass feedstocks.

These amendments are intended to align the Principal Regulations with amendments that will be made to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008 (Measurement Determination). The Principal Regulations establish what is reportable (fuel types and classifications), while the Measurement Determination establishes how emissions are calculated. Amendments to the Measurement Determination will make provision for how emissions for bioLPG and co-processed liquid fuels are to be calculated, among other things.

Impact and Effect

The regulatory impacts of amendments made by the Amendment Regulation have been assessed as minor by the Office of Impact Assessment (ref OIA26-11647).

Consultation

An exposure draft of the proposed Regulations was included in materials released for public consultation from Thursday 9 April 2026 to Friday 8 May 2026. No submissions received within this time period expressed opposition to the measures contained in the proposed Regulations. Following public consultation, the Department made a minor technical correction to Item 5 of the Amendment Regulations to identify the new co-processed liquid fuels as secondary fuels or energy commodities.

Other

Details of the Amendment Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The Amendment Regulations are compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared under section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. A full statement of compatibility is set out in Attachment B.

The Amendment Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.

The Amendment Regulations commence on 1 July 2026.

Authority:  Section 77 of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007.

ATTACHMENT A

Details of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026

Section 1 – Name

1.       This section provides that the name of the regulations is the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (Amendment Regulations).

Section 2 – Commencement

1.       This section provides for when the amendments made by the Amendment Regulations commence. The whole of the Amendment Regulations commence on 1 July 2026.

Section 3 – Authority

1.       This section provides that the Amendment Regulations are made under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Act).

Section 4 – Schedules

1.       This section provides that each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to the Amendment Regulations is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1 – Amendments to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008

Item 1

1.       This item inserts the following definitions in section 1.03 of the Principal Regulations:
   1.        bioLPG;
   2.       co-processed aviation kerosene;
   3.        co-processed diesel;
   4.       co-processed liquid fuel; and
   5.        co-processed LPG. 
2.       BioLPG is a liquid, biomass-derived fuel that is chemically equivalent to conventional fossil-fuel derived liquified petroleum gas. The new definition of bioLPG encourages the consumption and reporting of bioLPG as a substitute for liquified petroleum gas. This is a great decarbonisation option for many facilities because their existing infrastructure supports the use of bioLPG without the need for major upgrades.
3.       Co-processed liquid fuels are liquid fuels produced through the simultaneous processing of fossil and biomass feedstocks in the same processing unit. Co-processing is a great route to produce lower scope 1 emissions fuels because it can leverage existing refinery infrastructure, and transport and storage facilities instead of requiring new, dedicated infrastructure to produce 100% biomass fuel.
4.       The addition of the definitions of co-processed aviation kerosene, co-processed diesel, co-processed liquid fuel, and co-processed LPG encourages facilities to start co-processing at refineries and enable the reporting of consumption of co-processed liquid fuels by facilities. It also enables the use of certified fuels in the NGER scheme, such as low emissions fuels that are certified under the Guarantee of Origin scheme.

Item 2

1.       This item omits “is” at subparagraphs 4.27(5)(b)(i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) and substitutes “has a carbon dioxide equivalence of”. This amendment corrects an error so as to align with the wording in paragraph 4.27(5)(a), where threshold amounts for emissions from fuel combustion are considered in terms of carbon dioxide equivalence.

Item 3

1.   This item inserts a new table item 53C in the table in Schedule 1 of the Principal Regulations under existing table item 53B to prescribe BioLPG as a new biofuel.

Item 4

1.   This item omits “53B” in table item 54 in Schedule 1 of the Principal Regulations and substitutes “53C”.

Item 5

1.   This item inserts new table items 54A, 54B and 54C in the table in Schedule 1 of the Principal Regulations under existing table item 54, to prescribe co-processed aviation kerosene, co-processed diesel and co-processed LPG, respectively, as new co-processed liquid fuels.

Item 6

1.   This item inserts a new Division 7.14 in Part 7 of the Principal Regulations which deals with application provisions relating to the Amendment Regulations.

1.   This item inserts a new regulation 7.25 in the Principal Regulations which provides that the amendments made by the Amendment Regulations apply in relation to  a report under Parts 3, 3E, 3F or 3G of the Act for the financial year beginning on 1 July 2026 and each subsequent financial year.

ATTACHMENT B

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

Overview of the Legislative Instrument

The purpose of the Amendment Regulations is to support decarbonisation by enabling National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) reports to more accurately reflect emissions reductions associated with biomass-derived fuels. The Amendment Regulations do this by updating the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008 (Principal Regulations) to capture BioLPG as an alternative low-emissions primary fuel type.

This enables facilities to report bioLPG consumption separately from fossil LPG. In addition, the Amendment Regulations creates a new category of co-processed liquid fuels to enable reporting of fuels produced from mixed fossil and biomass feedstocks.

These amendments are intended to align the Principal Regulations with amendments that will be made to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008 (Measurement Determination). The Principal Regulations establish what is reportable (fuel types and classifications), while the Measurement Determination establishes how emissions are calculated. Amendments to the Measurement Determination will make provision for how emissions for bioLPG and co-processed liquid fuels are to be calculated, among other things.

Human rights implications

This Legislative Instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms.

Conclusion

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.

The Hon. Chris Bowen MP

Minister for Climate Change and Energy