NGER Scheme Survey

NGER Scheme Survey
NGER scheme survey
Climate Change Authority

Response received at:
15 September 2023, 12:07am

Response ID:

1 I have read and understood the Privacy Collection Statement and
Consent.
Yes

2 How do you want your survey response to be treated?
Public

3 If the Climate Change Authority needs to contact you about your
survey response, please provide an email address that we can use to get
in touch:
Not answered

4 Who are you participating on behalf of?
An organisation

5 What is the name of your organisation or corporation?
Ember

6 Is your organisation or corporation required to report under the NGER
scheme?
No

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7 What sector are you in?
Other: "Mining Research"

8 Electricity, gas, water and waste services
Not answered

9 Mining
Not answered

10 Manufactuing
Not answered

11 Transport, postal and warehousing
Not answered

12 What do you use to help your organisation or corporation understand
and comply with its reporting requirements under the scheme?
Not answered

13 [Blank question text]
Are the current corporate group reporting thresholds under the NGER scheme
appropriate?: Thresholds are about right
Are the current facility reporting thresholds under the NGER scheme appropriate?:
Thresholds are about right

14 Are there any sectors not currently part of the scheme that should be
added?
I'm not sure

15 If so, what?
Not answered

16 If you responded yes, please provide reasoning why the NGER scheme

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should be expanded to include additional sectors.
Not answered

17 Currently only constitutional corporations can have obligations under
the NGER scheme. Should the NGER scheme be expanded to other
entities?
I'm not sure

18 Please list any potential benefits or drawbacks you believe may arise
from expanding the NGER scheme to include additional entities.
Not answered

19 Should the NGER scheme be expanded to include scope 3 emissions?
Yes

20 Why should the NGER scheme be expanded to include scope 3
emissions?
The NGER scheme should be expanded to include scope 3 emissions in order to fully
capture and understand the climate impact of major emitters. Such reform is not without
precedent, notably, the Australian Capital Territory already measures its scope 3
emissions.

Ember emphasises the importance of measuring scope 3 emissions in relation to coal
facilities. Scope 3 emissions are a measurable way of differentiating between thermal and
metallurgical coal producers, which will assist with designing an appropriate
decarbonisation pathway for the sector.

21 Why shouldn't the NGER scheme be expanded to include scope 3
emissions?
Not answered

22 Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the NGER scheme
thresholds or coverage?
The coverage of decommissioned coal mines may not fully capture the emissions or likely
emissions from those facilities.

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There should be a review of the scope of the category of decommissioned underground
coal mines, and mines reporting as decommissioned underground coal mines should be
required to directly monitor their emissions rather than relying upon a Method 1 formula.

23 Does your organisation or corporation report fugitive emissions to the
NGER scheme?
Not relevant

24 How does your organisation rate the current NGER methods for
reporting fugitive emissions in terms of:
Accuracy: Very inaccurate

25 [Blank question text]
Ease of use: Neither hard nor easy

26 Is your organisation currently using top-down measurements for
reconciliation or verification of the fugitive emissions you report under
the NGER scheme?
Not answered

27 Does your organisation intend to use top-down measurements for
reconciliation or verification of source-based measurements in the
future?
Not answered

28 Has your organisation joined the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0?
Not relevant

29 Does your organisation intend to join the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) Metcoal Methane Partnership (MMP) when it
launches?

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Not relevant

30 Does your organisation face any of the following barriers in moving
from Method 1 to higher order methods for measuring fugitive
emissions?
Not answered

31 What changes to the NGER scheme would you suggest to make it easier
or less costly to move from Method 1 to higher order methods?
Not answered

32 Is there anything else you would like to tell us about methane
measurement, reporting or verification within the NGER scheme?
Ember reiterates the previous submissions it has made to the Climate Change Authority
on the importance of significantly reforming the measurement, reporting and verification
of coal mine methane emissions under the NGER scheme.

Ember recommends the following:

- All existing and new open cut coal operations, and all decommissioned underground coal
operations should be required to estimate the fugitive emissions of methane and carbon
dioxide that results from the extraction of coal using Method 4 (as defined in Part 1.3 of
the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008
(Cth)).

- Method 4 should also be reformed, with a particular focus on imposing limitations on the
eligibility of the use periodic emissions monitoring (PEM) under Method 4 (see r 1.21 of
the Measurement Determination) and imposing accuracy requirements upon emissions
monitoring, to ensure that all technologies associated with measuring greenhouse gas
emissions have an accuracy of 95% or higher.

- The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008 (Cth) set out at r 4.10
the matters that underground, open cut and decommissioned underground coal mines
must report to the Clean Energy Regulator. To the greatest extent possible, that
information should be publicly available.

- A verification program for coal, oil and gas facilities reporting under NGERS should be

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developed and implemented over the next 3 years from 1 July 2024. The verification
program should require annual facility-led verification programs alongside more targeted
verification campaigns to be undertaken by the Clean Energy Regulator to investigate
anomalies.

33 [Blank question text]
How well does the current publicly available data meet your data needs?: Partially meets
needs

34 Please tell us in a few words the reasons for your response:
The NGER scheme allows for the publication of important greenhouse gas emissions
information, but could be strengthened to provide a more fulsome picture to the public
and civil society. Expanded public reporting has important transparency and public trust
benefits, as well as providing opportunities for civil society and academia to undertake
independent verification.

The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008 (Cth) set out at r 4.10
the matters that underground, open cut and decommissioned underground coal mines
must report to the Clean Energy Regulator. To the greatest extent possible, that
information should be publicly available.

Furthermore, public information should be set out in an accessible format and should be
capable of being downloaded in an editable form.

If there are genuine concerns that significantly expanding the scope of publication under
the NGER scheme raises legal or administrative concerns, at a minimum, the Climate
Change Authority should consider recommending expanded information request
provisions under the Act, in addition to information request rights established under
Freedom of Information legislation. Such provisions exist in other legislation, for example,
under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth), any
person may request a recommendation report from the Secretary (see s 135A of that
Act).

35 Thinking about the current publication threshold and the impacts of
publishing data on reporting corporations, data users and meeting our
climate targets, what changes would you recommend to government?
The publication threshold should be decreased

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36 Thinking about the current content of the publicly available data and
the impacts of publishing data on reporting corporations, data users
and meeting our climate targets, what changes would you recommend
to government?
Publish emissions data at the facility-level data
Publish estimation methods
Publish emissions by greenhouse gas
Publish time series data
Other: "publish standardised emissions source data; publish uncertainty values
associated with estimation methods"

37 What would be an appropriate publication threshold for emissions data
at the facility level?
The Clean Energy Regulator should publish the emissions data at the facility-level,
estimation methods, emissions by greenhouse gas, time series data, standardised
emissions source data and the uncertainty values associated with estimation methods of
all coal facilities reporting under the NGER scheme, to ensure consistent transparency
across the sector and to facilitate independent verification studies.

38 What are your views on the current test for determining whether
NGER data has commercial value in section 25 of the National
Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act (2007)?
The test needs to more clearly define the characteristics of data that has commercial
value

39 On what basis should NGER reporters be able to have data excluded
from publication?
The test for whether information that would otherwise be made public should be kept
confidential, should be modelled from the broadly applicable ‘commercial confidentiality’
test set out in the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth). In that Act, commercial
confidentiality refers to documents that disclose ‘trade secrets’ and/or ‘any other
information having a commercial value that would be, or could reasonably be expected to
be, destroyed or diminished if the information were disclosed’ (see s 47).

The NGER scheme should expressly exclude keeping information confidential solely
because the reporting entity identifies that the publication of that information would

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carry the imputation that the entity is a major greenhouse gas polluter (or any other
imputation of that nature), and therefore, amounts to a reputational risk. Allowing the
NGER scheme’s confidentiality protections to be used as a shield for major polluting
entities, could be perceived as a form of government-condoned greenwashing.

40 Is there anything else you would like to tell us about publishing data
collected under the NGER legislation?
The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008 (Cth) set out at r 4.10
the matters that underground, open cut and decommissioned underground coal mines
must report to the Clean Energy Regulator.

To the greatest extent possible, that information should be publicly available. In particular
the following should be publicly accessible: a general description of all sources of
emissions at a facility (see r 4.10(3)(a)); the method used to measure emissions from each
type of source at a facility (see r 4.10(3)(b)); and the amount of each greenhouse gas, as
well as the total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2-e, emitted from each source at a
facility (r 4.10(3)(d) and (e)).

Additionally, the uncertainty ranges associated with each method used for each type of
source should be made publicly available.

The data from all sampling and modelling undertaken pursuant to methods 2 or 3 should
be publicly available (either on a webpage or within a reasonable timeframe upon
request). This will allow for independent verification of site-specific emissions factors
generated under those methods. Ember reiterates, however, that it recommends the
phaseout of methods 2 and 3.

41 [Blank question text]
How satisfied are you with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment
and Water’s role in maintaining and updating the NGER scheme?: Neither unsatisfied or
satisfied
How satisfied are you with the Clean Energy Regulator’s administration of the NGER
scheme?: Neither unsatisfied or satisfied

42 Do you have any comments about the work of the Clean Energy
Regulator and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the
Environment and Water on the NGER scheme?

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No further comments.

43 [Blank question text]
Not answered

44 Do you have any comments about the Clean Energy Regulator's online
guidance you wish to share?
Not answered

45 [Blank question text]
How would you rate the costs associated with reporting under the scheme? : Non-
significant administrative burden for businesses

46 Do you have any comments you wish to share about the balance the
NGER scheme strikes between costs on businesses of reporting and
achieving the NGER scheme’s statutory duties around reporting
emissions and energy data?
Ember emphasises that accurate and robust reporting under the NGER scheme is
essential for identifying methane mitigation opportunities across the coal sector and at
individual coal facilities. Reducing methane emissions is a critical component of delivering
on Australia’s climate targets, including net zero by 2050.

Accurate and robust methane monitoring, reporting and verification is a part of ensuring
major businesses are accountable for their environmental externalities, including their
methane pollution.

Finally, Ember notes that companies are already seeking to go beyond the NGER scheme
in their own efforts to monitor methane emissions. In BHP’s 2023 Annual Report, BHP
set out that it had delivered the following in 2023: “deepened our understanding of the
measurement and quantification of fugitive methane emissions from BMA [BHP
Mitsubishi Alliance] using emerging technologies, such as methane emissions-sensing
satellites, drones and on-site measurements. We also began a vent air methane
destruction project (where methane is vented from a mine in a way that it can be
captured and combusted) at BMA’s Broadmeadow mine.” This indicates that the costs of
the NGER scheme, or of any reforms to the NGER scheme, would not be disproportionate
to the environmental, climate and safety benefits delivered by improved methane

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monitoring, reporting and verification.

47 The effectiveness of the NGER scheme depends on robust and reliable
compliance monitoring and enforcement activities. Auditing is a key
compliance monitoring measure under the National Greenhouse and
Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act). Information about the Clean
Energy Regulator's audit framework can be viewed here.
In your opinion, how effective is the NGER audit framework in ensuring that reporters are
reporting correctly, completely and are fully compliant with their reporting requirements
under the NGER Act?: Highly effective

48 Is there anything you would suggest changing about the audit
framework to make it more effective at ensuring compliance, reducing
the incidence of unnecessary audits or the experience of being audited
less difficult or costly?
In addition to facility-led verification on an annual basis, the government should provide
for the Clean Energy Regulator to undertake or fund independent verification campaigns
when certain conditions are met. Ember recommends that this verification capacity be
integrated into existing provisions for the Clean Energy Regulator to audit and
investigate NGERS participants.

Ember recommends that the Clean Energy Regulator have discretion to undertake or
fund an independent verification campaign if any of the following conditions are met:

- The Clean Energy Regulator reasonably suspects that reported emissions from a facility
are fraudulent, and therefore, that independent measurements are necessary;
- There is a significant discrepancy between a facility’s initial source-level measurements
and site-level reconciliation (which may not be due to fraudulent behaviour); and
- There is significant discrepancy between the reported reconciled measurements of a
facility or a number of facilities and an independent study undertaken by a reputable
entity, for example, an IMEO campaign.

The Clean Energy Regulator should have discretion as to what technology it uses when
undertaking a verification campaign, and the scale of the campaign (e.g. at one facility or
across a basin).

Any person should be able to write to the Clean Energy Regulator to request a

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verification campaign. If the Clean Energy Regulator declines to undertake that campaign,
there should be a mechanism for any person to request reasons for that decision.

49 What are your views on the enforcement powers and activities of the
Clean Energy Regulator?
Please see the immediate preceding comment.

50 Would you like to stay up to date on the Climate Change Authority’s
work?

51 If yes, what is your email address?

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