The Federal government has put out a tender for a registry system to manage its carbon units and form the backbone for a national emissions trading scheme.
After having ratified the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is now required to implement a national registry to manage its carbon trading units.
The tenderer will have to supply and implement a registry — an electronic database to store and manage these units — according to the tender documents, as well as provide operational support and system hosting.
The registry will connect with the international transaction log (ITL), which checks emissions transactions put forward by national registries to make sure they follow the rules. After verifying the proposed transactions, the ITL either sends approval, or a rejection with a code to say why it was denied.
The system put forward by the tenderer has to have already proved it can connect to ITL over the internet in real time, or show it has started the connection process.
The first stage of the Australian registry is to be set up before the end of this year, according to the tender, with extra functionality such as allowing companies to manage their own carbon permits online to be added by July next year.
The tenderer also has to integrate the registry with OSCAR (Online System for Comprehensive Activity Reporting) — the Australian government emissions reporting system — as well as with financial market systems, the Australian Business Register and other Australian Taxation Office systems.
The integration has to be finished by the end of next year, with an official Australian emissions trading scheme scheduled to start in 2010.
