On June 24, 2026, the Government of Alberta released an updated version of its biomass-related carbon offset framework under the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulation, renaming the "Quantification Protocol for Energy Generation from the Combustion of Biomass Waste" to the "Biomass Waste Combustion for Energy Generation Quantification Protocol" as part of broader updates to its scope and methodology.
The updated protocol expands and clarifies its scope to include the quantification of emissions reductions arising from the combustion of biomass waste used to generate useful heat that directly displaces fossil fuel–sourced thermal energy. This shift formalizes heat displacement as a core crediting pathway, strengthening the role of biomass energy systems in Alberta’s offset market. At the same time, the protocol introduces clearer definitions around system boundaries and emissions attribution to improve consistency in offset credit generation across different project types.
Methodologically, the protocol has been updated to align with current datasets, reporting tools, and emissions calculation resources used across Alberta’s industrial and waste sectors. This includes a consolidated approach to quantification, where baseline and project emissions methodologies have been combined into a single structured framework. This integration simplifies reporting requirements while ensuring consistent application of emissions factors and displacement assumptions across eligible biomass pathways.
A key structural change in the revised version is the updated treatment of levied emission sources within project accounting. The protocol discusses the removal and revised handling of emissions subject to carbon levies, including how these emissions should be accounted for. For offset claims registered on or after April 1, 2025, project developers are required to monitor, measure, quantify, and verify all included emission sources as defined within the protocol boundary. This requirement ensures that emissions previously accounted for under separate levied frameworks are now fully incorporated into offset quantification where applicable, creating a unified accounting structure within the project boundary. This change is intended to improve transparency and reduce inconsistencies between tax-levied emissions and offset accounting systems.
Eligible feedstocks continue to include forest mill residues, agricultural residues, municipal organic waste, and forest biomass affected by natural disturbances such as wildfires or mountain pine beetle outbreaks. The protocol distinguishes between direct energy displacement credits and flexibility mechanisms for avoided methane emissions from landfill diversion or uncontrolled decomposition, while excluding regulated disposal practices, such as incineration and stockpiling of certain forestry wastes, from flexibility mechanism credits.
Consequently, the protocol establishes two compliance pathways for generating credits. The first is direct fossil fuel displacement, where emissions reductions are quantified when biomass waste is used to produce electricity or useful heat that replaces grid power or fossil fuel–based thermal energy. The second is a baseline diversion flexibility mechanism, which allows additional credits when developers demonstrate that biomass waste would otherwise have been landfilled or openly burned, resulting in methane-intensive emissions. This pathway generates credits by quantifying avoided disposal emissions against a defined historical baseline. Compliance requires continuous metering, monthly reconciliations, and an independent third-party verification.
Implications for Alberta TIER Markets
The updated protocol expands Alberta's biomass-based crediting framework by broadening eligible compliance pathways and project types and is expected to increase the supply of biomass-based offsets while strengthening the role of bioenergy as a key decarbonization strategy under the TIER system. By formally recognizing heat displacement from biomass combustion and consolidating baseline and project methodologies, it improves methodological clarity and enables a broader range of facilities with significant thermal energy demand to generate compliance credits by replacing fossil fuel–based heat with biomass energy. The revised treatment of levied emission sources, together with post–April 1, 2025 accounting requirements, further aligns carbon pricing and offset calculations, improving consistency in emissions attribution and supporting greater market transparency.
The protocol also aligns with the recently finalized Canada–Alberta Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Implementation Agreement, which provides greater long-term certainty for Alberta's industrial carbon market. While the MOU strengthens overall market stability, the protocol establishes a standardized framework for generating biomass-based compliance credits. Together, these developments expand compliance opportunities while reinforcing rigorous accounting, monitoring, and verification requirements to maintain credit integrity. Overall, the protocol strengthens the financial viability and operational clarity of biomass projects, supporting broader deployment of biomass-based heat displacement technologies and standardized emissions quantification across Alberta's TIER framework.
Next Steps:
- The updated protocol is now in effect as of June 24, 2026. Project developers operating under the TIER system are expected to transition to the revised methodology, including quantification and updated emissions boundary definitions, for all applicable reporting periods.
- ClearBlue is actively monitoring these developments. For more information regarding ClearBlue’s advisory services or market intelligence coverage, please contact us.