Climate Active Carbon Inventory v11 Guide | CY2025 Submissions

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If you’re preparing a Climate Active submission for CY2025, your deadline is 30 April 2026. That’s next week.

Climate Active released version 11 of the carbon inventory earlier this year. Most of the changes are minor — formatting tweaks, some emission factor removals, renamed fields to match the other calculators. But the process around the inventory trips people up every year, and the mistakes that cause delays are the same ones we see across our customers at NetNada.

This article covers what changed in v11, how all the Climate Active reporting documents connect to each other, and the specific things that slow down your certification if you get them wrong.

What changed in version 11

Three things worth knowing.

The emission factors for international rail, metro train, and WFH calculator result B have been removed. If you used any of these in previous years, you’ll need to adjust. The “Version history and changes” sheet inside the inventory workbook explains why each factor was removed.

Several emission factors have been renamed to match the terminology used in the electricity calculator, activity data calculator, and events calculator. If you’re copying outputs between documents, check that the names line up. Mismatches between documents cause delays.

Minor formatting changes throughout. Nothing that changes your calculations, but enough that you should not use a v10 inventory for your CY25 submission. Climate Active will send it back.

Which documents you actually need to submit

Climate Active has a lot of templates. Here’s what’s current and what connects to what.

The carbon inventory (v11) is the centre of everything. All outputs from the electricity calculator, WFH calculator, activity data calculator, and events calculator need to be entered into the carbon inventory. The inventory then feeds into your Public Disclosure Statement.

The flow is: activity data (invoices, records, surveys) → calculators (electricity, WFH, activity data) → carbon inventory → carbon offsets workbook + PDS.

The full list of current versions:

Carbon inventory: version 11
Electricity calculator: version 11
Activity data calculator (optional): version 11
WFH calculator (optional): version 6
Events calculator: version 11
Carbon offsets retirement summary workbook: version 1.2
Technical assessment: on the Climate Active website (June 2024)
Third-party validation: on the Climate Active website (February 2026)
Public Disclosure Statement: version 11
Small organisation declaration form: on the Climate Active website

The rule is simple: if you used it, submit it. Don’t leave out the activity data calculator because you think the inventory covers it. Climate Active wants to see your working.

The mistakes that delay your certification

Climate Active’s assessment process works like this: you submit your documents, they do a first review, they come back with questions, you respond, they do a final review, you sign the PDS, you get certified. Current approval times run three to four months for clean submissions. If your documents need multiple rounds of corrections, it takes longer.

Here’s what causes those extra rounds.

Wrong version. Using v10 templates when v11 is available. Climate Active will ask you to redo the work. This is the easiest mistake to avoid and the most annoying to fix.

Numbers that don’t match across documents. The electricity calculator says one thing. The carbon inventory says another. The PDS says a third. Climate Active checks for consistency between all your submitted documents. If the outputs from your electricity calculator don’t match the inputs in your carbon inventory, or if the inventory totals don’t match your PDS, you’ll be asked to explain the difference or resubmit.

Missing previous year data. The carbon inventory asks for both current year and previous year activity data and emissions. People forget the previous year columns. Climate Active needs year-on-year comparison to assess your emissions trajectory. Leave these blank and you’ll get a query.

Incomplete PDS justifications. Every emission source you exclude from your boundary needs a written justification. “Not material” is not enough. Your PDS is a public document. Any reader should be able to understand why a source was excluded and why it’s not relevant to your certification.

Submitting the PDS as a PDF. Submit it in Microsoft Word. The Climate Active team needs to review and comment in the document. PDFs get sent back. The PDS does not need to be signed at initial submission — that happens after the final review.

Forgetting to refresh the PivotTable. The emissions summary in the carbon inventory is a PivotTable. If you add or change data after the table was last refreshed, the summary won’t match your actual inventory. Right-click the table, hit refresh, then copy the updated figures into your PDS.

Uplift factors: when to use them and how

This came up repeatedly in Climate Active’s Q&A sessions. An uplift is an additional amount of carbon offsets you purchase to cover emissions you can’t fully quantify or where there’s uncertainty in your data.

You apply an uplift when:

You can’t get the data. Maybe your cleaning chemical supplier doesn’t provide product-level information, or you have no records for a particular emission source. Estimate the emissions, apply an uplift, and document a plan to get better data next year.

The data is too expensive to collect relative to the emissions. If collecting precise data would cost more than offsetting the likely emissions, you can treat the source as non-quantified and apply a mandatory uplift. You still need to explain this in your PDS and commit to addressing it over time.

The source is tiny. A company with 1,000 tonnes of total emissions that buys a small amount of stationery might estimate those emissions at under 0.1% of the total. They purchase 1 tonne of offsets as an uplift. That’s fine — but document it.

Your emission factors are old. If you’re using a factor based on 2020 data for a CY2025 submission, apply an uplift (Climate Active’s example suggests 20% of that emissions source) to account for changes since the factor was published.

In every case: explain the uplift, state your assumptions, and describe what you’ll do to improve the data quality next year.

Carbon offset evidence

Climate Active requires evidence for every offset you claim. The type of evidence depends on the type of unit.

For ACCUs (Australian Carbon Credit Units) and CERs (Certified Emission Reductions): provide either a screenshot of the retirement in the relevant registry or a letter from the registry/broker confirming retirement.

For VCUs (Verified Carbon Units) and VERs (Voluntary Emission Reductions): provide a hyperlink to the retirement record in the Verra or Gold Standard registry, plus a screenshot if the hyperlink is to a registry search page.

Enter all evidence in the Climate Active carbon offsets retirement summary workbook (v1.2). Screenshots need to be legible — if the review team can’t read the serial numbers, they’ll ask you to resubmit.

The emissions reduction strategy in your PDS

Your PDS must include an emissions reduction strategy. Climate Active is specific about what this needs to contain.

You need a genuine intention to reduce emissions over time. You need quantified, time-bound targets backed by measurable actions. And you need the strategy to be relevant to what’s being certified.

The difference between a target that passes and one that doesn’t:

“We aim to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 40%.” — This fails. No baseline year. No target year. No way to measure progress.

“We commit to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 40% by CY2035 compared to a CY2021 baseline.” — This works. Specific scopes, specific reduction, specific timeline, specific baseline.

If your target baseline emissions aren’t publicly available through Climate Active or another source, disclose them in the PDS. If you’re using intensity targets, state the metric and show both base year and current year intensity figures. If you use terms like “net zero” or “climate positive,” define exactly what you mean by them.

One more thing: if your emissions reduction strategy in the PDS says something different from what you’ve said publicly elsewhere — in your annual report, on your website, in marketing materials — explain why. Climate Active checks for consistency with public-facing claims.

Boundary questions that come up every year

Can you certify just one office and exclude others? Generally, yes — but Climate Active expects your certification boundary to include all material activities supporting the certified operations.

If you have staff working overseas who support the certified office, their emissions should be acknowledged. You can calculate them with local emission factors if data is available, or estimate through an uplift. Either way, justify it.

If you’re excluding emission sources, use Appendix D in the PDS to explain what falls outside the boundary and why. The standard is: could a member of the public read your PDS and understand what’s included and what isn’t?

Frequently asked questions

I reclassified some equipment from “electronic equipment” to “scientific equipment” this year. Do I need a new technical assessment?

No. If the total impact of the reclassification is less than 10% of your total emissions, you don’t need a new technical assessment or a base year recalculation. Explain the change in your emissions summary section. This came directly from Climate Active’s March 2026 webinar Q&A.

Do I still need an emissions reduction strategy in my final year of certification?

Yes. Climate Active standards apply through the final year. You need the full strategy with quantified, time-bound targets. Whether you need a technical assessment in your final year depends on your circumstances — contact Climate Active at climate.active@dcceew.gov.au if you think your case warrants an exception.

I have remote employees overseas supporting my Australian office. Can I exclude them?

Not really. Climate Active expects your certification boundary to include all material activities supporting the certified operation. If those overseas staff are relevant to how your certified business runs, their emissions need to be acknowledged. You can estimate through an uplift with a justification — number of staff, nature of their work, local energy context — rather than collecting precise activity data. But excluding them without explanation will get flagged.

What counts as a valid uplift?

Climate Active gave five situations where an uplift is appropriate. Data you can’t get (apply uplift, commit to improving data next year). Data that’s too expensive to collect relative to the emissions it represents. Sources so small they’re negligible. Data with uncertainty, like estimated refrigerant leakage rates. Outdated emission factors where you apply, for example, a 20% uplift to account for potential changes since the factor was published. In all cases: document the uplift, state your assumptions, and describe your plan to improve.

How long does certification approval take?

Three to four months for clean submissions. Applications that need multiple rounds of corrections take longer. Climate Active reviews each submission individually. The single biggest factor in speed is document quality — consistent numbers across all documents, complete fields, proper justifications for exclusions.

Can I get an extension on the 30 April deadline?

Yes. Request it through the Climate Active portal: find your ongoing reporting, click the three dots, select “Request extension.” Maximum extension is 30 June 2026. Requests beyond that date are rejected. Expect a response within 10 days, though some requests need senior approval and take longer.

Is the registered consultant training still available?

Training and registration are currently paused. Climate Active aims to resume within the next six months.

The deadline

CY2025 ongoing reports are due 30 April 2026. Extensions can be requested through the Climate Active portal — find your ongoing reporting, click the three dots, select “Request extension.” The maximum extension is 30 June 2026. Requests for anything later than that won’t be approved.

If this is your first report, there’s no fixed deadline — submit when ready.

If you report on a financial year basis, your next report is due 31 October 2026.

If you’re doing this in a spreadsheet

The Climate Active carbon inventory is an Excel workbook. It works. But if you’re managing multiple sites, tracking year-on-year changes, collecting data from several people across the business, and trying to keep your inventory, electricity calculator, and PDS consistent with each other — the spreadsheet workflow gets difficult to manage at a certain scale.

That’s the problem NetNada was built to solve. The platform handles the calculations, maintains the audit trail, and keeps everything consistent across your submission documents. If you want to see how it works with your data, book a walkthrough.

But whether you use software or spreadsheets, the fundamentals are the same: use the latest versions, show your working, document your assumptions, and make sure your documents agree with each other.