New amendments to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS) are paving the path for renewable gas to play a key role in Australia’s net zero journey.
As part of the updated legislation, from 1 July 2025, NGERS will formally recognise the decarbonisation benefit of renewable gases such as biomethane and hydrogen delivered through gas infrastructure.
Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, submitted the National Greenhous and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Amendment (2025 Update) Determination to Federal Parliament following a public consultation process.
The amendments are:
Renewable fuels
- Introduces market-based reporting of emissions from consumption of biomethane and hydrogen
Scope 2 emissions from consumption of electricity
- Makes a routine annual update of emission factors
- Updates the market-based method
- Adds a requirement for consistent use of the market-based method for all facilities within a controlling corporation’s group
- Clarifies the permitted timing of surrender of renewable energy certificates used in calculating market-based emissions
- Adds new matters to be identified under Schedule 4 – Renewable Energy Target accreditation codes for power stations within the facility, surrender ID numbers of surrendered certificates
Fugitive emissions from oil and natural gas operations
- Updates the emissions factors used in method 1 and method 2A for gas flared during oil and natural gas operations
- Makes method 2B for estimating fugitive emissions from gas flared during natural gas production available to natural gas transmission and distribution facilities to expand access to facility-specific higher order methods
- Corrects an error in the contextual data to be reported when method 2B is used to estimate fugitive emissions from gas flared during natural gas production. The correction replaces unintentional references to ‘tonnes of flared crude oil and liquids’ with references to ‘tonnes and gigajoules of flared gas’
- Adds the requirement to report the ‘tonnes of flared gas’ when methods 2, 2A or 3 is used to estimate fugitive emissions from flaring during natural gas operations are used. This update will help to support Australia’s domestic and international emissions reporting obligations and NGER Scheme compliance
Waste
- Enables reporting of the diversion of biosolids to biochar production
- Updates the N2O emission factor for effluent discharged to estuaries
The updated legislation also includes minor technical updates aimed at improving clarity and operation of the scheme.
Industry response
Jemena welcomed the change to the NGERS legislation.
Jemena General Manager, Renewable Gas, Suzie Jakobovits, said it represents the next piece of the puzzle in achieving a fully-fledged renewable gas market.
“This is a significant step in the development of Australia’s biomethane sector and provides businesses with the ability to purchase biomethane to reduce their Scope 1 emissions,” Ms Jakobovits said.
“Biomethane is a renewable gas that is 100 per cent compatible with existing infrastructure and gas appliances. This makes it a suitable drop-in fuel that will help Australian industrials decarbonise their operations.
“We expect this will be particularly useful for manufacturers who currently use natural gas to produce many of the items we use every day, such as glass, bricks, fertilizers and some medicines.”
Ms Jakobovits said Jemena is already laying a strong foundation to drive Australia’s biomethane industry.
As the owner and operator of Australia’s first biomethane network injection project, located in the Sydney suburb of Malabar, Jemena is currently producing enough biomethane to meet the energy needs of approximately 6,300 customers.
Jemena has also signed several MOUs with businesses who are looking to produce biomethane and inject it into Jemena’s New South Wales gas distribution network.
Jemena said these collaborations could, in time, produce enough biomethane to meet the energy requirements of all its current hard-to-abate industrial customers in New South Wales.
Ms Jakobovits said although biomethane production is still an emerging industry in Australia, it is already demonstrating the benefits of a circular economy on the global stage.
“Denmark aims for 100 per cent biomethane injection by 2030, while Ireland plans to transport 100 per cent renewable gas through its network by 2045.”
Australia’s Bioenergy Roadmap, produced by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), found that Australia’s biomethane sector could contribute around $10 billion in extra GDP per annum, reduce carbon emissions by about 9 per cent, and create over 26,000 new jobs by 2030.
