From 1 July 2010 Australia has a National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) to encourage businesses to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions in a voluntary carbon market.

It provides a voluntary standard for businesses to use in becoming carbon neutral and in developing carbon neutral products. It also includes guidance on calculating the carbon footprint of an organisation or product and product life cycle analysis for the purpose of achieving ‘carbon neutrality’.

Only emissions sources that are not counted towards Australia’s Kyoto Protocol target are eligible to generate offsets under the NCOS – so it does not include renewable energy, energy efficiency and methane-flaring projects.

See http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/carbon-neutral/ncos