What Does Climate Active’s Closure Mean for Your Business?

On 24 July 2026 the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) confirmed that the Australian Government will end certification of voluntary climate claims through Climate Active, with certification proposed to end on 30 June 2027 after a transitional period. 

The department is consulting on two options until 5.00pm AEST on Friday 18 September 2026, and a final decision is expected before the end of 2026. For a certified business that raises two questions at once. What happens to the claim already printed on the packaging, and what carries the weight once the certificate is gone? 

In Short 

The dates that matter 

What Climate Active certification required

Climate Active is an Australian Government program, established in 2010 as the National Carbon Offset Standard, that certifies organisations, products, services, events, buildings and precincts as carbon neutral. Participants calculate the greenhouse gas emissions generated by their activity, reduce those emissions where possible through new technology or operational change, and offset the remainder by purchasing carbon offset units.  

Entities meeting the relevant Carbon Neutral Standard could then use the Climate Active trade marks to promote that action. 

Certification for buildings ran through the National Australian Built Environment Rating System or the Green Building Council of Australia. Events, organisations, precincts, products and services went through the department directly. 

The part that mattered commercially was the trademark. Measurement and reduction are internal exercises that no customer sees. The mark was the visible output, and it is the reason the program shaped voluntary carbon buying in Australia for more than fifteen years. 

The loss of the Climate Active trademark, and certified carbon neutral 

The DCCEEW has stated that ending certification will also end the Climate Active trademarks and use of the term carbon neutral under the program.  

The Climate Active brand is being discontinued in full, including the register of consultants and the Climate Active website. The Carbon Neutral standards as they currently exist will also be discontinued, although some updated Australian voluntary standards may be retained if the second consultation option is adopted. 

Once the changes take effect, the department will no longer review or monitor any claim made about Climate Active or Carbon Neutral certification. Entities can seek certification under other schemes as they choose.  

For any business with the mark on packaging, in tender documents or across a website, that is a substantive brand and compliance task with a deadline attached. It’s important to be aware that the government’s basis for the claim is being withdrawn rather than transferred somewhere else. 

Why the Australian government is closing a program it built 

DCCEEW’s reasoning for the closure of Climate Active is that Climate Active was no longer meeting public trust and community standard, as it allowed customers to claim carbon neutrality through offsetting with cheap offsets, and without taking the reduction steps that are necessary to reach net-zero. There are some additional reasons: Since 2010, mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements have been implemented as part of changing corporate sustainability practices. There has also been maturing and widely adopted international guidance frameworks, and last, there is increased demand for direct emissions reduction from consumers, investors and the public.   

Australia now has a legislated target of net zero emissions by 2050, and both the Safeguard Mechanism and the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme have been reformed. 

The two options for Climate Active, and why the difference matters 

Option one is to close the Climate Active program. Option two is to close the program while the department retains some voluntary standards and selects guidance.  

For a business that has invested years in certification, the difference is whether an Australian reference method survives at all. Under option two, there remains a domestic basis for calculating a voluntary claim, even without certification behind it. Under option one, that question moves entirely to international frameworks written for other jurisdictions and other regulators. 

Submissions for consultation will be submitted through the DCCEEW consultation hub, either as a survey response or an optional written submission in .docx or PDF format. Email submissions are not accepted. 

What replaces the certificate: mandatory climate disclosure 

For Large Australian entities, the future is fairly clear. They are now required to report climate risks, opportunities and metrics inside their annual financial reports, under the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) standard AASB S2, Climate-related Disclosures. The requirements phase across three groups by entity size. 

Four things have to be disclosed. Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, with Scope 3 becoming mandatory from each entity’s second reporting year. Scenario analysis shows how physical and transition risks affect financial performance. A transition plan setting out what the business is doing to meet its targets. And metrics on carbon credits held, planned or retired. 

That last requirement is the one offset buyer should read twice. A carbon credit purchase used to sit in a marketing budget and end in a logo. From here, it sits in an audited financial statement and ends in front of an assurer. 

For smaller businesses, they will find their own certification standards to use if they would like to continue being a carbon neutral certified business. 

Why Scope 3 pushes the obligation past the reporting entities 

Scope 3 covers value chain emissions, so a reporting entity cannot complete its own disclosure without data from its suppliers. Most of those suppliers sit below every threshold in the table above and carry no direct obligation. 

The requirement reaches them through procurement instead. A supplier that once held certification to win tenders will be asked for emissions of data and for evidence of what it has retired. The paperwork changes and the pressure arrive from a customer rather than a department, but demand for credible units does not disappear. It changes hands.

What certified businesses should do before Climate Active Ends i.e 18 September 2026  

• Read the consultation paper and confirm which of the two options serves your position, then submit through the Have Your Say platform before 5.00pm AEST on 18 September.

• Audit every place the trademark and the carbon neutral claim appear. Packaging, website, tenders, email footers, vehicle livery. Work back from 30 June 2027 to set a replacement date for each.

• Work out which reporting group you fall into, or whether you supply a customer in Group 1 or Group 2. Answer changes what you need to document.

• Review the offset portfolio against what an assurer will ask. Registry serial numbers, retirement records, purchase dates and price evidence carry more weight than project photography. 

• If certification is loading bearing for your customers, start evaluating other schemes now. The department has said entities can seek certification elsewhere, and the transitional period is the window to do it in. 

Where this is heading 

The reasonable forecast is that Australian SME carbon claims get subtle and better evidenced at the same time. Fewer marks on packaging, more line items inside audited reports. That is a harder environment for marketing and a clearer one for anyone who has been buying units properly, because the question moves from what the claim looks like to whether the number survives assurance.

Where carbon offset buying goes after Climate Active

Certification is the part that ends. The units you have already retired, the registry records behind them and the reasoning for buying them are still yours, and they still have to answer a question from a customer, a tender panel or an assurer.

If you are still buying to support a voluntary claim, explore carbon offset projects → with registry detail and issuance data attached to each one.

If the question you are now being asked is what a unit is worth and how pricing differs by method, daily ACCU pricing across methodologies sits on Clima Markets.

Try it free → markets.clima.com.au
No credit card required.

Frequently asked questions 

• When exactly does Climate Active certification end?
  Certification is proposed to end on 30 June 2027 following a transitional period. A final decision on the program is expected before the end of 2026.
   
• Is my certification still valid?
  The program has not closed. Certification continues through the transitional period, and DCCEEW has said it will work with participants and provide guidance directly to affected entities.

• Can we still say carbon neutral after the program closes?
  The Climate Active trademarks and the program use of the term are being discontinued, and the department will no longer review or monitor claims made about Climate Active or Carbon Neutral certification. Any continued claim would need a different basis, so take your own advice on the wording.

• What replaces Climate Active in Australia?
  No government certification replaces it. Corporate climate accountability runs through mandatory climate-related financial disclosure under AASB S2, which requires reporting of emissions, transition plans and carbon credits held, planned or retired. Entities can seek certification under other schemes as they choose.

•  Is this the same thing as clima active?
  Yes. The program is Climate Active, run by DCCEEW. It is often searched and written as clima active, and both refer to the same Australian Government carbon neutral certification program.

• Do Safeguard Mechanism facilities need to do anything differently?
  No. Safeguard baselines and ACCU surrender obligations sit under separate legislation and are unaffected.

• Will ACCU prices fall because of this?
  Voluntary demand for premium co-benefit methods loses its main driver, which puts downward pressure on those specific methods. Compliance demand from Safeguard facilities is set by legislated baselines and is unchanged. The two move for different reasons and should be forecast separately.