Summary

Amends the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 to: remove the obligation to obtain consent of eligible interest holders from existing area-based emissions-avoidance projects; clarify that state and territory government Crown lands ministers and Commonwealth ministers responsible for land rights legislation have consent rights for projects conducted on exclusive possession native title land that is Torrens system land or land rights land; provide for legislative rules or regulations to allow parts of a sequestration offsets project to be removed and credits surrendered for the carbon stored in that area; ensure a sequestration project’s net total liability under the scheme does not include credits issued for emissions avoidance or credits that have already been relinquished; clarify that requirements to relinquish carbon credits if carbon stores are lost apply to sequestration projects that store carbon and avoid emissions; provide for projects to transfer between methods so as to move between emissions-avoidance and sequestration; ensure that relinquishment requirements apply to projects whose crediting period extends beyond their permanence period; and allow legislative rules or regulations to provide for the removal of regulatory approval or consent conditions on declarations obtained after the end of the first reporting period for the project.