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Carbon neutral is achieved when the net greenhouse gas emissions associated with an activity are cancelled out or negated through emissions reduction and/or the purchase and cancellation of carbon offset units.
At EnergyAustralia, our carbon neutral product is called Go Neutral.
If you opt in for carbon neutral energy, we’ll fully offset the emissions associated with your home energy use – your electricity or gas, or both - through the purchase and cancellation of carbon offset units from projects eligible under Climate Active.
Through Go Neutral, we source offset units from a range of Australian and international climate action projects.
Not at all. We’ve chosen to offer Go Neutral at no extra cost to you, so you can easily opt in to make a difference. We’re covering all the costs and administration involved and don’t pass them on to you.
A carbon offset unit represents the removal of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2-e) from the atmosphere, or the avoidance of one tonne of emissions.
Climate Active is an Australian Government backed program that sets the rules for measuring, reducing, offsetting and reporting emissions, so that organisations like ours can make a carbon neutral claim.
When you opt in to Go Neutral, we follow a set of requirements for measuring, reducing, reporting and offsetting your carbon emissions from your home energy use, according to the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard.
Carbon neutral claims made against Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard must meet certain criteria, including:
- Credible greenhouse gas measurement techniques, which ensure the emissions and emissions sources covered by a claim of carbon neutrality can be understood and evaluated
- Independent auditing every second year, to ensure emissions have been accurately measured, offset and reported
- A reasonable attempt has been made to reduce in-house emissions before using offset credits
- Genuine offsets units have been purchased and cancelled to compensate for all emissions associated with the claim
- Activities and achievements related to the carbon neutral claim are transparently reported.
Burning fossil fuels produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, which is harmful to our environment and increases the effects of climate change.
For electricity, the impact occurs when fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas are burnt at power plants in order to produce electricity. For gas (which is a fossil fuel), the impact occurs when you use (i.e. burn) it in your home.
We calculate how much carbon dioxide your home’s electricity or gas, or both emits into the atmosphere and purchase carbon offsets issued by accredited climate action projects to offset the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
If you’re a new customer, you can easily opt in for carbon neutral energy when you choose your new energy plans. After six months of being with us (for each eligible account), we’ll automatically start offsetting your household energy emissions.
Our Climate Active Public Disclosure Statement outlines our calculations for residential electricity carbon neutrality.
Renewable energy resources generate no or very little carbon as they produce energy from natural resources that don’t run out, like solar (sun) and wind. Carbon offsetting involves investing in projects that prevent or reduce emissions being released. For example, we calculate the emissions from your home electricity use and purchase the equivalent amount of carbon offsets to neutralise your electricity emissions – making your electricity use carbon neutral.
We support climate action projects accredited under Climate Active.
These currently include:
- Savanna fire management in Australia
- Forest regrowth in Australia
- Energy efficiency in India
- Greenhouse gas containment in Brazil
When you opt in, you’ll receive regular updates about our carbon neutral activities including offset projects both in Australia and overseas.
Yes, you can now offset emissions associated with your home’s gas use.
Yes, we recently made Business Carbon Neutral available to our business electricity customers (note, it is not available for your business’ gas). Read more about signing up to Business Carbon Neutral.
If you move home, you’ll need to take the simple step to opt in again with your new energy plans, at no extra cost to you. This is because you’ll have new account numbers when you move to a different address.
Offsetting starts from the six month anniversary of the date each account is established.
Our purpose is to lead and accelerate the clean energy transformation for all.
By investing in the next generation of technology that will meet customers’ energy needs, and offsets for remaining emissions, our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2050.
We believe any decision we make or any project we do should be socially and environmentally acceptable.
Listening to our stakeholders, minimising our impact on the environment, working safely and providing economic opportunities for local businesses and workers are just some of the things we do so our operations are sustainable.
Our parent company CLP Group has strict sustainability principles governing how all its businesses, including EnergyAustralia, should operate sustainably.