A project involves implementing emissions reduction activities on at least one vehicle or group of vehicles. The activities must fall into at least one of the following categories:
- replacing vehicles
- modifying existing vehicles
- changing the energy source or the mix of energy sources used by vehicles, or
- improving operational practices in relation to vehicles.
In addition, a project must be classified as either a ‘group of vehicles’ project or an ‘aggregated vehicles’ project. Each type of project is suitable to different transport businesses and has different rules relating to what types of vehicles can be included and how abatement is calculated.
A
group of vehicles project is more likely to suit businesses that do not collect data at the level of individual vehicles, such as public or hire fleets and logistics companies. These projects:
- can include light vehicles, trucks, buses, trains and marine vessels
-
cannot include mobile equipment
Mobile equipment is off-road self-propelled machinery not covered by another vehicle category. Some examples are mining and agricultural vehicles.
In a group of vehicles project, the emissions reduction activities must be applied to all vehicles in a sub-group. A sub-group contains all vehicles of the same vehicle category within a business unit or transport operation.
An
aggregated individual vehicles project is more likely to suit businesses that have vehicle-specific data, such as railways, shipping and some trucking operations. These projects:
- include trucks, buses, trains, marine vessels and mobile equipment, but
-
cannot include light vehicles.
In an aggregated individual vehicles project, emissions reduction activities do not necessarily need to be applied all the vehicles within a vehicle category. This means that you can choose which vehicles within each category and business units participate in the project, however, the duty cycle of the vehicle must remain substantially the same.
Transport mode switching refers to changing between vehicle categories (eg between rigid trucks and rail freight). In the context of the current Emissions Reduction Fund land and sea transport method, a mode shift project is possible only where a proponent conducts operations across both vehicle categories (providing that the duty cycle of the replacement vehicle is the same as the replaced vehicle). Any abatement created is
not based on the difference in emissions intensity between categories of vehicles. Rather, abatement is created by improvements in emissions intensity within the categories of vehicles involved in the project. Under the current method, mode switching projects are unlikely to result in the creation of abatement.