What is Carbon Farming?

With  human-caused global warming from emissions of green house gases likely to be an issue that engages the world for generations to come, efforts at a landscape scale to encourage landowners to sequester carbon in trees and vegetation will become more important as time goes by.

After signing the Kyoto Treaty in 2007, the Australian Federal government, in 2012, introduced a price on carbon leading to entry into an emissions trading scheme with Europe in 2015. A  carbon price is designed to put an economic value on the long term cost to society of continuing air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels which have been a key ingredient of industrialisation in the last 200 years. Market-based cap and  trade systems for transforming  the energy biases of economies are generally preferred to  the alternatives of  taxing or criminalising pollution. Direct action schemes  can be effective but they also need to be paid for somehow.

Carbon Farming Initiative

In Austalia’s case, a tax on the 500 largest emitters in Australia has funded schemes such as the Carbon Farming Initiative which are designed to create carbon credits that can be traded on the world carbon market. The agriculture sector produces about 15% of green house gas emissions in Australia but it is exempt from the carbon tax.

In order for the carbon market to retain long-term credibility and the confidence of those who invest in it so that it achieves its inter-generational goal of lowering the amount of green house gases in the atmosphere, it  has been necessary  to create a fairly complex regulatory system that involves both Federal and State legislation. Even though the financial tools for creating incentives to reduce carbon emissions continue to be contested in the current political climate in Australia, policy makers and major political parties have reached consensus on the need to reduce emissions in Australia by a minimum of 5% by 2020. There currently appears to be bi-partisan support for the Carbon Farming Initiative, with questions as to how it will be funded in the future under a Coalition government direct action policy if the carbon tax is repealed and an emissions trading schems does not take its place.

There are many legal, economic, planning and land management  issues surrounding the establishment of a market for trading carbon credits produced by farmers. Like any  new market, it takes time for participants to gain sufficient confidence  before investing. This website is designed to provide a service to landowners who are interested in carbon farming as one  aspect of  farm diversification.

Contact Carbon Farming Law for more information.

*NOTE: This website contains general information only. Any information on  this website must not be taken as a substitute for specific legal advice. Readers who wish to obtain legal advice specific to their situation should do so from a qualified legal practitioner after providing full instructions to that practitioner.