Confidence In Carbon Farming Takes Another Hit

Posted Tue Jul 16, 2013 PHOTO: Labelled the ‘Ghostbusters’ the fire scientists suck up the flames with their long silver wands. (ABC Rural) AUDIO: Tough times in Australia’s carbon farming market (ABC Rural) MAP: Darwin 0800 Confidence in Australia’s carbon farming market is shaky at best and the ongoing changes to policy is not helping according to an industry expert. The Federal Government has today announced its plan to scrap the carbon tax and bring forward an emissions trading scheme by one year. That move could see the carbon price in Australia drop from around $25 to just $6 a tonne. The government will also cut millions of dollars from the Biodiversity Fund and Carbon Farming Futures program. Manager of carbon markets for EcoKnowledge, Dr Tim Moore, says the forecast drop in price is going to make it very hard to run viable carbon farming businesses. “I’m the optimist in this market and I’m not particularly confident at the moment,” he said. “For a carbon farming project to be viable you have to be able to profitably reduce emissions or permanently store emissions in the landscape for less than $6 or $7 (a tonne) and I think that’s going to be a real challenge for the Australian Carbon Farming Initiative and the carbon credit production sector in Australia.” Dr Moore says a lower carbon price and lack of approved methodologies is making carbon farming tough, particularly in the rangelands of Australia. “I think there’s over 150 projects registered under the Carbon Farming Initiative and I think if you go through the records there’s probably only five or six farmers participating in the scheme, the rest are landfill operators,” he said. “So even though it’s named the Carbon Farming Initiative it hasn’t really been effective to date in assisting landholders to get into the carbon market and generate some additional revenue from changed land management practice.” Taylor Scott International