Our readers may have already read our "Doing Business in Australia" series of articles posted before. Recently quite a few relevant facts and policies have been updated. Hence we have produced a new version. You will be able to receive the updated articles about "Doing Business in Australia" in the coming weeks.
Climate Change
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme
The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS) is the national framework for reporting on greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, energy use and energy production.
Who has to report?
The obligation to register and report under NGERS rests with the Australian ‘controlling corporation’ of a corporate group. The corporate group includes all subsidiaries and any facilities owned by joint ventures or partnerships where a corporate member is nominated as the responsible entity.
The corporate group needs to report if facilities over which it has operational control emit GHGs, or consume or produce energy, over specified thresholds. The thresholds are:
Importantly, even if only one of the three corporate group thresholds is met, reporting on all three areas (energy consumption, energy production and GHG emissions) is required. However, if a corporate group has operational control over a facility that meets the facility threshold, but does not meet the corporate group threshold, it need only report on that facility.
Australia’s response to Climate Change
The Australian Government has introduced a Direct Action Plan to reduce carbon emissions to 5% below 2000 levels by 2020.
The main feature is the creation of an AUD$2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund which provides financial incentives for business to reduce their emission. This scheme is administered by the Clean Energy Regulator which will run reverse auctions to purchase emission reductions at the lowest available cost. The Regulator will enter into contracts with successful bidders which guarantee payment in return for delivery of emissions reductions.
The other feature of the Plan is to establish a 15,000-strong ‘Green Army’ charged with the clean-up and conservation of the environment in local communities throughout Australia.
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To view our previous news for Chinese investors and various articles in relation with the topic ‘Doing business in Australia’, please click the button on the upper-right hand corner on our WeChat platform, and choose ‘view history’. The contents include:
Business set up in Australia, business structures,company administration, etc.
Background information of Australia, including Australian government, legal system, and business structures, etc.
Laws and regulations in various common areas, including protection of technology and intellectual property, anti-trust and consumer law, contract law, business migration, real property, public takeovers, and electronic commerce etc.
