You can choose to receive your allocation either in advance or in arrears.

Provisional

If you apply for a Provisional Allocation you receive your entitlement in advance, based on your production for the previous calendar year. To ‘square up’ your entitlement with what you actually produced, in the next application period you’re required to submit an allocation adjustment.

Final

If you apply for a Final Allocation you will receive your entitlement in arrears, based on your production for the previous calendar year. If this is your first year producing one of the prescribed products you won’t have any historical production data, so you’ll need to apply for a Final Allocation. You can then choose to apply for a Provisional Allocation from your second year of production.

Annual Allocation Adjustment

If you currently receive a Provisional Allocation but you’d like to start receiving your allocation in arrears (so it’s based on your actual production data) then you’ll need to submit an Annual Allocation Adjustment.

Closing Allocation Adjustment

You must, within 20 working days of ceasing to carry out the activity:

• notify the EPA through our contact centre 
• submit a Closing Allocation Adjustment
• meet your repayment obligation.

Contact centre information

Failure to do so will result in penalties.

More about compliance and penalties

Applications for an Industrial Allocation are made via the Register.

To make an application, you, or your organisation, will need to be registered as an Account Holder in the Register. The person making the application will also need to be a registered user of the Register with access to the relevant account.

When you are ready to make your application, log in to the Register, go to your organisation's account and select 'ETS Activities' from the left hand menu. When the page opens, select 'Industrial Allocations' from the left hand menu. You will then be able to start your application.

If you're unsure if your application has been submitted successfully or you'd like any support with the submission process please contact us.

Access the NZ Emissions Trading Register

Watch this short video for a step by step guide to applying for a Final Allocation:

Watch this short video for a step by step guide to applying for a Provisional Allocation:

You must submit your application via the Register by the following statutory deadlines:

• Provisional allocation applications: Apply between 1 January - 30 April of the year for which you wish to receive NZUs.
• Final allocation applications and annual allocation adjustments: Apply between 1 January - 30 April of the year following the year for which you wish to receive NZUs.
• A Closing Allocation Adjustment and the repayment of any units must be completed within 20 working days from the date you stopped carrying out the activity.

Late applications cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

If you receive NZUs for a certain year, you must keep records of certain information for seven years after the end of the year for which you received them. You must assess for yourself which records will be sufficient to enable certain matters to be verified. Below are the matters you must be able to verify and some examples of the kind of records you might keep.

If an unincorporated body wishes to apply for an industrial allocation, some details about the unincorporated body and its members will need to be provided before the application can be processed. A form will be sent to you for this purpose if applicable. For more information email etsallocations@epa.govt.nz.

For the purposes of Industrial Allocation, an unincorporated body is an identifiable group of associated persons or organisations that jointly carry out an eligible industrial activity that are not incorporated.  Unincorporated bodies include a partnership, joint venture or trustees of a trust.

Members of an incorporated body are generally specific legal entities in their own right (for example limited liability companies, a partner in a partnership, or individual persons).