New Zealand carbon market platform

Manage every carbon credit affair in one platform

Calculate what you emit, watch what your forest accumulates, and buy, sell, trade or broker New Zealand carbon credits when you are ready - with verified counterparties, managed escrow and fees published in advance.

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Calculate Accumulate Buy Sell Trade Broker Settle
Government ETS auction

Latest Crown auction result

Loading the latest Government auction result and Carbon Trader activity…
Aerial view of New Zealand forestry and farmland, where NZU carbon credits are earned and traded
What Carbon Trader covers

Three things this platform does

Most people arrive needing one of these. You do not have to do all three, and you do not have to trade to get value from the first.

Measure. Calculate emissions from the Ministry for the Environment's published factors - all 902 of them, free and open. Keep a proper ledger of what you measured and on what basis.

Trade. Buy or sell NZUs with verified counterparties. Post what you want and let sellers come to you, or ask us to source it privately.

Settle. Money and units move through managed escrow with a written statement at the end, so neither side has to trust the other first.

Free and open

Start with the free tools

These need no account, no card and no sales call. They are the same factors and the same arithmetic the platform uses internally.

The full emission factor catalogue

Every factor in the Ministry for the Environment's Measuring Emissions guide - 902 of them - as a searchable catalogue and a free public API. Each factor carries its unit, its gas breakdown, its MfE release and its source reference, so you can show your working. Most tools bury a handful of factors inside a calculator; this publishes the lot.

Browse the catalogue

Electricity, quarter by quarter

MfE publishes the grid factor quarterly, and New Zealand hydrology moves it a long way: in 2025 it ranged from 0.0272654 to 0.108492 kg CO2e per kWh. The same 120 MWh is 3.27 or 13.02 tonnes depending only on which quarter's factor you use. Annual averages hide the largest lever most New Zealand businesses have.

See the electricity factors

What do I owe?

An indicative ETS surrender liability from the statutory default emissions factors, for waste disposal, coal, gas and HFC imports. No account needed, and no price data - just the units.

Open the liability calculator

My farm's footprint

An indicative on-farm emissions profile from the published national-average factors. Agriculture is not in the ETS, so this reports a profile, never a liability.

Open the farm calculator

What is my forest accumulating?

Indicative units from the MPI default carbon tables, so you can see what a registered block is building up before you decide to do anything with it.

Forestry support

Market reference data

Every ETS auction since the scheme began, including the ones that failed to clear, plus a free daily close API and the published fee estimator. Useful whether or not you ever trade here.

Auction history
Your position

Know where you stand

Sign in and the same factors run against your own numbers. Nothing here is a forecast, and nothing is priced unless a real trade has set a price.

Obligations

My Obligations

What you are likely to have to surrender, from the statutory default factors, with the 31 March and 31 May dates and reminders before them. If you are short, it will help you cover it; it will not tell you what to pay.

Forestry

My Forest

What your registered blocks are accumulating against the MPI default carbon tables, valued only when a real traded price exists to value it against.

Agriculture

My Farm

An indicative on-farm emissions profile. Agriculture carries no ETS obligation in New Zealand law today, so this never shows units owed, never prices the emissions, and never nets your forest off your farm - those are separate things in law and we keep them separate.

Measurement

Carbon Tracker

A measurement ledger, not a dashboard. Sites, sources, readings, and emission records that freeze the factor, value, unit and MfE release used at the moment of calculation. A correction writes a new record and supersedes the old one; nothing is ever recalculated in place. That is the difference between a number you reported and a number you can still defend a year later.

Ways to trade

Four ways to do a trade

Self-service where that is enough, and broker-led where credit quality, settlement risk, documentation or confidentiality means it is not.

Marketplace

Live lots from verified sellers

Browse what is currently offered, buy now, or bid. Every seller has been through identity and source-of-credit checks before anything of theirs appears.

Browse listings
Buy requests

Say what you want

State the quantity, the price and the deadline, and let sellers come to you. You do not have to wait for someone else to list first.

How buy requests work
RFQ

Source it privately

Ask us to find it quietly. Quotes come back into one confidential room so you can compare them properly, instead of across a week of emails.

Request an RFQ
Broker desk

Larger and more complicated

Staged sales, seller mandates, cross-border sourcing and parcels that should not be handled as a simple public listing, with a person on it.

Explore the broker desk
Credit types

NZUs, voluntary credits and international sourcing

Carbon Trader supports New Zealand Units and selected non-NZU credit types where the standard, registry, project, vintage, evidence and claim basis can be reviewed. Different credits are suitable for different purposes, so the platform does not treat every carbon credit as interchangeable.

NZ ETS compliance use Voluntary offset use Contribution claims Retirement or cancellation NZ-origin supply International sourcing Nature or biodiversity-related credits Specialist credit instruments

Assessable credit categories may include NZUs, Verra VCUs, Gold Standard credits, Plan Vivo Certificates, selected NZ-origin voluntary credits, selected NZ nature and carbon-market credits, ACCUs, CORSIA-eligible credits, Article 6-related units and other specialist instruments where appropriate.

Services

The specialist services

Beyond trading and settlement, these are the parts people usually come to us for by name.

Verification and AML checks

Identity, company, authority, beneficial-owner, source-of-funds, source-of-credit and sanctions checks where required.

Verification

Credit quality and claims

Review credit type, registry, project, vintage, retirement pathway, evidence and claim suitability before using credits in reports or claims.

Quality and claims

Enterprise API and data

Approved enterprise users can access credit search, RFQs, evidence packs, fee estimates, claim assessments, webhooks and market data.

Enterprise API

Government and structured auctions

Public information and restricted account workflows for invitation-only auction programmes, eligibility, bid records and settlement support.

Government Auctions

Forestry and annual sale programmes

Support for forestry participants and advisers who expect future NZU receipts and want future sale windows managed under a standing mandate.

Forestry support
How it works

Getting started

Verification first, then the trading profile. Registration asks only for what is needed to review you - payout and registry details come later, from your account, before your first trade.

For buyers

  1. Create an account and verify.
  2. Browse lots, post a buy request, or ask for an RFQ.
  3. Agree the trade and fund managed escrow.
  4. Take delivery to your custody wallet or your own ETS account.
  5. Receive the settlement statement and transfer evidence.
The detailed process

For sellers

  1. Create an account and verify, including source-of-credit checks.
  2. List units, or respond to a buy request.
  3. Agree the trade and transfer into escrow.
  4. Get paid on settlement.
  5. Receive the settlement statement and completion records.
Forestry managed sales
Settlement and custody

The part that usually goes wrong

Most carbon trades fall over between agreement and delivery. That is the part we operate.

Managed escrow

Money is held and released against the transfer, so neither side has to go first. Sellers never provide NZETR or RealMe credentials - the seller or their authorised representative initiates the transfer.

Settlement process

Custody wallet

Hold units on the platform between trades with every movement recorded, or take delivery to your own ETS account. Your choice, per trade.

Wallet and custody

A statement at the end

Every settlement produces a written statement of what moved, when, at what price, and what it cost.

Managed settlement

Evidence exports

Exports of your activity carrying a SHA-256 content hash, so a document you hand to an auditor can be checked against the original later.

Quality and claims

Pay by invoice

Settlement is funded by bank transfer against a Carbon Trader invoice, so your finance team pays it the way they pay anything else. No card surcharge. Fees are estimated before you commit, from the published schedule.

Fees and estimator

If you are doing this as a team

Seats and roles so the right people can act, and approval thresholds so a trade above a limit needs a second person - real maker-checker, not an honour system. Plus finance exports and alert rules.

Organisations
Trust and controls

What we publish before you ask

Verified counterparties. Identity, company, authority, beneficial-owner, source-of-funds, source-of-credit and sanctions checks before anyone trades. Carbon Trader uses third-party services including Sumsub, Mailgun, Stripe, analytics, market data providers, hosting infrastructure and registry-related service providers.

Client money controls, written down. Escrow and custody arrangements are published, not described on a call.

Fees published in advance. The whole schedule - 46 published items - with an estimator that quotes your trade before you commit. No spread we do not tell you about.

The law, in writing. Eighteen published policies: the regulatory position, AML/CFT and KYC, risk disclosure, escrow and client money controls, privacy, security, supplier standards and more. If you are assessing us as a counterparty, start there.

No advice, and no valuations. We do not quote, recommend or value carbon credits, and we do not provide tax, legal, accounting or investment advice. Prices are set by the people trading. Where we cannot honestly state a figure, we say so instead of estimating one.

Legal and compliance documents Published fee schedule Verification
Join Carbon Trader®

Start with verification, then build your trading profile

Start with secure identity verification, then choose your trading username and account type. Once approved, your account centre will help you manage listings, buy requests, settlement instructions, wallet preferences and notifications.

Verified details first

Identity and contact checks are handled before your trading profile is submitted, helping keep account information cleaner and more reliable.

Only the essentials up front

Registration asks for the minimum needed for review. You'll add payout and registry details from your account before your first trade.

Your account centre then keeps the next steps visible in-app, by email, and by SMS as your application moves through review, approval, and settlement.
FAQs

Common questions

These answers explain how the Carbon Trader platform works at a practical level.

Do I need an account to use the calculators?

No. The calculators, the emission factor catalogue, the public API, the auction history and the daily benchmark are free and open. You only need an account to trade.

Where do your emission factors come from?

The Ministry for the Environment's published Measuring Emissions guide for general factors, the statutory default factors in the Climate Change Response regulations for ETS obligations, and MPI's default carbon tables for forestry. Each factor shows its source and release, so you can check it.

Is agriculture in the ETS?

No. Processor-level obligations were repealed in 2024 before taking effect, and there is no farm-level emissions return or surrender obligation in New Zealand law today. My Farm therefore reports an emissions profile, not a liability.

What does it cost?

Every fee is published, and the estimator will price your trade before you commit. Carbon Trader earns on settled trades, not on you looking around.

Does Carbon Trader only deal with NZUs?

No. Carbon Trader supports NZUs and selected voluntary, international and specialist carbon-credit types where the standard, registry, evidence and claim basis can be reviewed.

Can Carbon Trader sell NZUs for a client?

Yes. Carbon Trader can assist under a seller mandate, including verification, buyer engagement, price discovery, listing management, escrow, NZETR transfer coordination and completion records.

Does Carbon Trader need my NZETR login?

No. Carbon Trader does not ask for NZETR login credentials or RealMe credentials. The seller or authorised NZETR representative initiates transfers according to agreed settlement instructions.

Are public listings binding?

No. Public listings remain subject to buyer verification, seller approval, agreed pricing, settlement terms, transfer requirements and Carbon Trader terms of trade.

Can advisers use Carbon Trader for clients?

Yes. Accountants, forestry advisers, consultants and other authorised representatives can work with Carbon Trader where the client provides appropriate authority.

Does Carbon Trader provide investment advice?

No. Carbon Trader provides platform, brokerage, escrow, settlement coordination and evidence services, but does not provide tax, legal, accounting or investment advice.

Ready to use Carbon Trader?

Start where it suits you.

Use the tools, or open an account and trade. If you would rather talk to someone about a larger position, a forestry mandate or an integration, we would rather that too.

Talk to us Create an account

Carbon Trader

Carbon Trader is operated by Trend Enterprises Limited t/a Carbon Trader®. The platform supports carbon-credit buying, selling, sourcing, marketplace listings, brokered RFQs, managed escrow, settlement coordination, evidence packs, claim-risk controls and enterprise carbon-market data tools for New Zealand and international carbon-credit markets.

Financial Services Registered Provider number: FSP1008496. NZBN: 9429048521130. Carbon Trader® works with buyers, sellers, foresters and advisers throughout New Zealand.