NGER reporting: who reports greenhouse emissions and energy, and by when

Who carries the duty: the controlling corporation

The duty sits with one company at the top of the group. The Act defines a controlling corporation as “a constitutional corporation that does not have a holding company incorporated in Australia” (s 7). The Clean Energy Regulator says it is usually the company at the top of the corporate hierarchy in Australia, that it can be a non-operational holding company, and that it can be a foreign incorporated company operating directly in Australia without an Australian incorporated subsidiary.

The Regulator says a group may be the controlling corporation alone, or may include subsidiaries, which it calls group members. For “subsidiary”, the Act itself gives the meaning in section 46 of the Corporations Act 2001 (s 7). The Regulator adds that a foreign controlling corporation has no group members, because it must apply under s 12 only where it has operational control of a facility itself.

Operational control of a facility

What a group counts is set by which facilities its members have operational control of. In the Regulator’s words, a facility is “an activity or series of activities (including ancillary activities) that generate greenhouse gas emissions and produce or consume energy”. A corporation has operational control if it has the authority to introduce and implement operating, health and safety, and environmental policies for the facility; where more than one does, it is the one with the greatest authority for operating and environmental policies. When operational control changes hands during a year, the Regulator says each corporation reports for its part of the year.

The thresholds, as the Act prints them

A group meets a threshold for a financial year if any one of these six is met in that year. The figures below are the ones in s 13(1) for every financial year after 2009–10; the three group thresholds were higher in the first two years, and the facility thresholds have not changed.

Four qualifications sit beside the table. The thresholds apply to emissions, production or consumption only where the Minister has determined methods, or criteria for methods, to measure them under s 10(3) (s 13(1A)). If a group entity has operational control of a facility for some but not all days of a financial year, each facility threshold is replaced by an amount worked out using a formula in s 13(2). On any day a person held a reporting transfer certificate for a facility, the facility is treated as outside the group’s operational control (s 13(3)). And where a group meets only a facility threshold, the Regulator says it reports on those individual facilities only.

Scope 1 and scope 2, in the regulations’ words

In the Act, an “emission of greenhouse gas” means a scope 1 emission or a scope 2 emission (s 7), and both terms “have the meaning specified by the regulations” (s 10(1)). The NGER Regulations 2008, as compiled on 1 July 2026, give them:

“For paragraph 10(1)(a) of the Act, scope 1 emission of greenhouse gas, in relation to a facility, means the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as a direct result of an activity or series of activities (including ancillary activities) that constitute the facility.”

“For paragraph 10(1)(aa) of the Act, scope 2 emission of greenhouse gas, in relation to a facility, means the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as a direct result of one or more activities that generate electricity, heating, cooling or steam that is consumed by the facility but that do not form part of the facility.”

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008, regs 2.23 and 2.24

The Regulator says estimates count every activity at the facility under the corporation’s control, contractors’ and sub-contractors’ work included.

The two deadlines

1. The trigger year. The financial year in which the group meets a threshold (s 12(1)). A corporation may also apply early, if an executive officer is satisfied the group is likely to meet one (s 12(3)).
2. Apply by 31 August. The application “must be made by 31 August in the financial year after the trigger year” (s 12(4)). A corporation still registered at the end of a later year does not apply again (s 12(2)).
3. Report every year registered. A report is required for the trigger year and for any financial year at the end of which the corporation is registered (s 19(2)).
4. Before the end of 4 months. Under s 19(6), each report must be given in a manner and form the Regulator approves; be based on the methods the Minister has determined under s 10(3), or methods meeting the Minister’s criteria; set out the information the regulations specify; and be given “before the end of 4 months after the end of the financial year”.

Where control of a facility covers only part of a year, the report for that facility covers only that part (s 19(3)).

If a deadline is missed

Both duties are civil penalty provisions, each with a civil penalty of 2,000 penalty units: failing to apply under s 12(1), and failing to report under s 19(1). Each figure is a ceiling, not an automatic fine: under s 31, a court decides the penalty, and it must not exceed the amount set for the provision plus any amount the person is liable for under s 30 when the court makes the order. Under s 30, the obligation continues after the deadline passes until it is met, and a person who misses a time set under s 12 or s 19 is liable to a further civil penalty of 100 penalty units for each day of the failure. A note to s 19 adds that giving false or misleading information to the Regulator may be an offence under Division 137 of the Criminal Code.

Where an NGER registration leads

Registration under the NGER Act brings two other duties close. A facility with more than 100,000 tonnes of covered emissions in a year is also under the Safeguard Mechanism, and the Regulator says a responsible emitter that is not yet registered must apply to register under NGER by 31 August after it meets the safeguard threshold. And a registered corporation, or one required to apply under s 12(1), meets one of the tests for preparing a sustainability report under s 292A(5) of the Corporations Act, if it must also prepare a financial report under Chapter 2M.