The rules

What the law says, and what it doesn't

Plenty of people are selling carbon services on the back of a scare. Here is the actual position, so you can judge the urgency for yourself.

Who reports, and when

Australia's mandatory climate disclosure regime phases in by company size. The largest entities began first, from 1 January 2025; the second group from 1 July 2026; the third from 1 July 2027.

Value-chain emissions — the ones your freight sits in — are required from each entity's second reporting year. For the largest group on a June financial year, that makes FY27 (from 1 July 2026) the first year their freight emissions had to be reported. For the second group it is FY28, and later again for the third.

What that means for a carrier

You almost certainly have no reporting obligation of your own
Your customers do, and freight is a visible line in theirs
They may estimate with industry averages — many will, at first
The ones who tender for freight are asking suppliers directly

What customers actually ask for

In practice, one of three things:

Activity data — litres of fuel and kilometres run on their freight, so they can calculate it themselves
Emissions — tonnes of CO₂e attributed to their freight for the year
Intensity — grams of CO₂e per tonne-kilometre, the number tenders score

We produce all three from the same dataset, which is why one set-up covers whatever arrives next.

What we won't tell you

That you're about to be fined. That a contract will be cancelled next month. That you need to buy offsets. None of that is true, and a fleet owner can smell it.

The honest case is simpler: this question is now in tenders, it will be asked more often each year, and the cheapest time to have an answer is before you're asked.

The standards we work to

ISO 14083:2023

The international standard for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions of transport chain operations. Published 2023 and now the reference point customers cite.

GLEC Framework v3.2

The Smart Freight Centre's freight-specific implementation of ISO 14083 — how to allocate shared loads, handle empty running and report intensity.

NGA Factors

Australia's National Greenhouse Accounts Factors, published annually by the federal department. Diesel combustion is about 2.7 kg CO₂e per litre under the 2026 edition — the exact factor depends on vehicle class and engine standard, which is why we set it per truck rather than fleet-wide.