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This was in the latest Environmental Manager published by Thompsons - you can get a trial here: Well researched environmental stuff

http://services.thomson.com.au/cpdnews/trialmc.asp


START - CO2 Australia creates its first credits
CO2 Australia announced last week it has created its
first carbon credits under the NSW Greenhouse Gas
Abatement Scheme (GGAS). The certificates will be
used to meet an agreement with Origin Energy. The
company is also in the final stages of applying for
accreditation under the fed ‘Greenhouse Friendly’
program. CO2 Australia managing director Andrew
Grant described the company to EM as “a bespoke
carbon sink credit-creating business” and said it is
“grossly simplistic” to characterise all carbon sink
schemes in the same way. It is “unhelpful” to dismiss
sinks programs as not being part of the solution, he
said. “I don’t think we have the luxury … we need
every known option plus some”. CO2 Australia
gained accreditation under the NSW Greenhouse
Gas Abatement scheme (GGAS) in November 2004,
making it the first company in the world to be
accredited under a mandatory emissions trading
scheme to generate credits from forests. The terms of
that accreditation require it to have planting sites for
its mallee eucalypts independently audited as Kyoto
compliant and to demonstrate “very sophisticated”
record-keeping and carbon accounting procedures,
Grant said. It must also have risk management
procedures in place and demonstrate it owns and
controls the carbon rights. GGAS also obliges the
company to have legal agreements requiring the
trees to be kept in place for 100 years, with these
agreements registered on title. CO2 Australia reports
annually to the GGAS scheme administrator using
CSIRO-developed carbon-accounting and forecasting
tools developed specifically for the company. Grant
described the requirements as “incredibly onerous
and time-consuming”, but said it delivered integrity
and accountability. END