Industrial allocation estimator
If you carry out an eligible industrial activity you may receive an allocation of New Zealand Units. This works out an indicative figure from the statutory formula and the allocative baselines prescribed in law. No account needed, and no price data - just the units.
What might you be allocated?
Enter the amount of each prescribed product you produced in the year before the allocation year - that is the year the formula uses. Amounts are tonnes of product.
How the figure is worked out
The Climate Change Response Act 2002 sets the formula in section 81:
PA = LA × Σ(PDCT × AB)
- PDCT is the amount of each prescribed product you produced in the year immediately preceding the allocation year.
- AB is the allocative baseline prescribed for that product in Schedule 2 of the Climate Change (Eligible Industrial Activities) Regulations 2010.
- LA is the level of assistance: 0.9 for a highly emissions-intensive activity and 0.6 for a moderately emissions-intensive one, each reducing by the applicable phase-out rate every year after 2020 - 0.01 a year to 2030, then 0.02, then 0.03 from 2041.
The electricity allocation factor is already in the baseline
This catches people out, so it is worth stating plainly. Regulation 6(a) says the electricity allocation factor is used to determine the allocative baseline for each product. It is already inside the baseline figure, so this estimator does not apply it again. Multiplying by it a second time would inflate every estimate.
It is also a different quantity from the Ministry for the Environment's grid emissions factor used for scope 2 reporting, and from the flat figure in regulation 6(b) used to test an activity's emissions intensity. The three are not interchangeable. We show the current values below for reference.
A factor determined by the Electricity Authority has no legal effect until it is prescribed by regulation, which historically takes effect from the following 1 January. Where the two differ, the prescribed figure is the one the regulations give you.
What this is, and what it is not
This is an estimate from published figures. Carbon Trader® does not apply for, file or determine allocations. Applications are made to the EPA through the New Zealand Emissions Trading Register, and your entitlement is decided by the EPA on the basis of your own production data and the regulations in force at the time. There is a provisional allocation and a later final entitlement, and they can differ.
Nothing on this page is financial, legal, tax or accounting advice. If the figure matters commercially, check it against the regulations and take your own professional advice.
Where this fits
Industrial allocation is the other side of the ETS from a surrender obligation: units received rather than units owed. If you also carry a surrender obligation, the My Obligations dashboard estimates that from the statutory factors and tracks the 31 March and 31 May dates. Where you need to buy units, our marketplace settles through managed escrow.