Australia opens consultation on design of hydrogen ‘guarantee of origin’ scheme

George Varma, a hydrogen expert at Pinsent Masons said: “In order to tap the growing domestic and international demand for low carbon products, it is essential for hydrogen projects to be able to track and verify the ‘green’ origins of their product.  This is a well-known imperative in the industry and, to date, the push for a guarantee of origin scheme for renewable hydrogen has largely been driven by the private sector. In that context, it is good to see the Australian government stepping up to take the lead.”

The consultation has been published by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (the department). The policy is intended to provide Australian and overseas end users of hydrogen products with transparency in respect of the carbon emissions of those products.

The GO scheme is designed to be a product-based emissions accounting framework that measures and tracks emissions and associated information across the value chain, with an associated mechanism for the creation of ‘Product GO Certificates’ and ‘Renewable Energy GO Certificates’ reflecting that information.

There are four documents included in GO consultation exercise: the scheme design paper (34-page / 813KB PDF); a REGO approach paper (12-page /326KB PDF); an emissions accounting approach paper (62-page / 984KB PDF); and an emissions accounting approach calculator.

Consultation of the GO Scheme Design Paper will close on 17 October 2023 while consultation on the GO Accounting Approach calculator will close on 14 November 2023.