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Understanding Australia's Guarantee of Origin Scheme

Written by Sallie O'Rourke

 

The Guarantee of Origin Scheme (GO) is a voluntary, internationally aligned scheme that verifies renewable energy and tracks product emissions across their life cycle. It was implemented in November 2025 following initial announcements as part of the National Hydrogen Strategy in 2019, and following consultation and trials which ran from 2021 to 2023.

 

Australia’s GO scheme aligns with the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE) guidelines which have been identified as an important aspect in Australia’s scheme being accepted by international trade partners.

 

Australia has an emerging hydrogen industry and is well positioned to become a major exporter, therefore, the development of an internationally consistent hydrogen guarantee scheme is seen as advantageous in future efforts to expand hydrogen production and exportation, and to aid transparentness in its environmental impact as consumers look to reduce carbon emissions.

 

Some other benefits of the scheme include producers being able to prove their environmental claims, it supports environmental social and governance reporting and access to Government incentives, and it is a key component towards a net zero Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

The two parts of the GO scheme

The GO Scheme consists of two parts: the Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin (REGO), and the Product Guarantee of Origin (PGO).

 

Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin

The REGO uses certificates, validated by the Clean Energy Regulator, to track and verify the origin of renewable electricity.

REGO certificates can be created for new or existing facilities, electricity dispatched from energy storage facilities and electricity exported overseas. The following facilities and renewable energy sources are eligible under the scheme:

 

  • Facilities: accredited power stations, electricity generation systems and energy storage systems (including battery, compressed gas, thermal, kinetic, gravitational and pumped hydro)

 

  • Renewable energy sources: hydro, wave, tide, ocean, wind, solar, geothermal aquifer, hot dry rock, energy crops other than biomass from native forest, wood waste, agricultural waste, waste from processing of agricultural products, food waste, bagasse, black liquor, biomass-based components of municipal solid waste, landfill gas, and sewage gas and biomass-based components of sewage.

 

REGO can be used at the same time as the Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme but not for the same electricity generated. The REGO will continue after the RET ends in 2030.

 

A business may use the REGO to support renewable electricity claims and ESG reporting claims.

 

 

Product Guarantee of Origin

The PGO documents emissions across the entire life cycle of a product via PGO certificates which are validated by the Clean Energy Regulator. Currently, the only eligible product to be included in the PGO is hydrogen produced via electrolysis. In future, the PGO will expand to include: hydrogen produced via other methods including steam-methane reforming and gasification; biomethane; low-carbon liquid fuels; green metals; and renewable gases (see below for future changes to the scheme).

 

PGO certificates are updated throughout the products lifecycle to include production, delivery and consumption details which encompasses where and how a product was made, how it was transported and its end use. PGO certificates can also be linked when one product is used to create another product (e.g. hydrogen used to produce ammonia).

 

A business may use the PGO to demonstrate eligibility for certain Government initiatives such as the Hydrogen Headstart program, Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive, and the Green Aluminium Production Credit.

 

 

 

 

 

How does the Scheme work?

Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin

A person registered under the scheme can register eligible facilities (as specified in the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin) Act 2024) and create REGO certificates for each megawatt-hour of renewable electricity generated, stored or dispatched from the facility. Certificates contain information about when and where the renewable electricity was made, facility details, the source of the renewable energy and First National attributes, among other things. They can also be transferred or retired. The Clean Energy Regulator assesses all REGO certificates submitted for registration.

 

 

Product Guarantee of Origin

The scheme uses digital certificates, available for anyone to view on the Guarantee of Origin (GO) Register, to track the lifecycle of an eligible product. A business must check that they are eligible for the PGO and then, if eligible, enrol as a registered person. To create and manage certificates, a participant’s profile type (e.g. production, delivery, consumption) should be registered and approved. The certificates are updated by approved collaborators as the product progresses through its lifecycle. Producers of hydrogen via electrolysis (the only approved product at this time) can create certificates for batches of hydrogen using a recognised production method. Producers will need to identify hydrogen emissions sources, calculate hydrogen emissions intensity and factor hydrogen co-products (e.g. oxygen) and losses (the reduction in hydrogen throughout the supply chain) into the emissions accounting. The requirements and rules for the PGO are stipulated in the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin) Methodology Determination 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

Expansion of the Scheme

As mentioned, the GO Scheme will expand in future to include other products with a total of 11 to be eligible for certification in the scheme’s first year. Earlier in the year, feedback was sought for proposed amendments that would enable certification of new production pathways for biogas, biomethane and iron ore and consultation recently concluded for proposed updates to the GO Scheme Cost Recovery Implementation Statement to support the addition of 4 products to the PGO. These products are: hydrogen by solid gasification and pyrolysis, methane (biogas anaerobic digestion), methane (biomethane by biogas upgrading), and bio LPG.

 

 

 

 

 

Keep your finger on the Scheme with Environment Essentials

As these additional products are added and the scheme continues to grow, developments will be notified through our complimentary news service, HSE Bulletin, and legislation updates will be summarised in our online directory EnviroLaw.

 

If you are an Environment Essentials subscriber and would like to add EnviroLaw to your cache of products, please contact your Account Manager or our client services team.

 

If you are not an Environment Essentials subscriber but would like to be informed about the Guarantee of Origen Scheme, then sign up for a free trial today or get in touch with our sales team.

 

 

 

 

 

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