Update on carbon farming projects

Council has made a number of enquiries to carbon farming companies and state and federal governments to determine whether the proposed Tourism and Ecotourism precincts should prevent carbon projects (i.e. what is the reasoning, what evidentiary support is there, what are current policies and guidelines saying).

As these are private entities, it is not appropriate for council to respond on their behalf. Additionally, there are a variety of types of carbon farming projects available and organisations can apply different levels of restrictions or limitations around contracts so what may be correct for one organisation may not apply to another. If you are concerned and wish to involve council in your discussion with the carbon farming entities, council would happily avail themselves.

The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) is an Australian Government body responsible for accelerating carbon abatement for Australia through the administration of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme, Renewable Energy Target and the Emissions Reduction Fund. The Australian Government purchases lowest cost abatement (in the form of Australian carbon credit units) via the Emissions Reduction Fund, from a wide range of sources such as carbon farming projects.

CER has provided the following information and has confirmed that council may make it publicly available.

"There is nothing specifically that prevents projects from being undertaken in an ecotourism precinct. All proposed projects must meet the requirements of the method, such as land eligibility (section 9 of the method) in order to be declared. For sequestration projects such as soil carbon projects, there are also considerations to be made in terms of permanence obligations. When deciding whether to undertake a project, the proponent can choose a permanence period of either 25 or 100 years. Once the permanence period is nominated, it cannot be varied. If the project proponent then cannot meet these obligations for whatever reasons, the project may be revoked and they may be subject to ACCU surrender or Carbon Maintenance Obligation as a result.

That being said, it is a private business decision to register a carbon project or to purchase a property with an existing carbon project and the Clean Energy Regulator does not oversee the standards of Carbon Service Providers.

The Carbon Market Institute may be of more assistance to help understand how and why carbon service providers choose their risk profile."

Additional information is available from https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/. To find out more information about Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) eligibility criteria they may like to complete the eligibility questionnaire, email enquiries@cleanenergyregulator.gov.au, or call the CER contact centre on 1300 553 542