A presentation made at the WCCA 2011 event in Brisbane, Australia.

1. Australian Public Policy to mitigate
and adapt Agriculture for climate
change
Jean-Francois Rochecouste
National Executive Officer
Conservation Agriculture Alliance of Australia and New
Zealand

2. Australian agriculture’s Greenhouse gas emission profile
1. BACKGROUND

3. A small
emission
country
A high per capita
emission country
excluding land use
change and
forestry emission

4. Significance of agriculture in emission
terms (Australia vs Global)
Australian GHG Emission by sector Global GHG Emission by sector
Waste
3%
Land use
9% Land use
17% Stationery
Waste Energy
3% 26%
Agriculture
15% Stationery
Energy Agriculture
49% 14%
Industry
Transport
5%
13%
Fugitive Transport Industry
emissions 13% 19%
6%
Buildings
8%

5. Relevance to national GHG accounts
Agricultural emission 120,135 Gg (1000 tonnes)
for 2008 from:
• Enteric Fermentation
• Manure Management
• Rice Cultivation
• Agricultural soils
• Prescribe burning of savannas
• Field burning of agricultural residues

6. Agricultural GHG Emission by sector
Agricultural GHG Emission by sector
Cattle
burning of
Sheep
crop residue
Other livestock 0% savanah
Rice cultivation burning
Agricultural soils 13%
Prescribe burning of
savanah
burning of crop
residue Agricultural
Non- Agricultural soils
sector
17%
Cattle
53%
Rice
cultivation
0% Sheep
13%
Other
livestock
4%

7. Summary
Australia is a high energy user, the
agricultural profile is close to global
pattern at about 15%

8. 2. POLICY OUTLINE IN AUSTRALIA

9. Current Climate Change Policy
• Establishing a carbon price ($23/tonCO2e) for
highest emitters
• 3 year transition to an emission trading
mechanism
• Provide support mechanism for:
– renewable energy
– energy efficiency
– Land use
• Agriculture emission is exempt

10. Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI)
• baseline & credit carbon offset scheme to
provide economic opportunities for farmers,
forest growers, food processors and landholders
• The CFI was passed by Parliament on 23 August
2011 as the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming
Initiative) Act 2011.

11. Objects of this Act
1. Implement certain obligations that Australia
has under the Climate Change Convention
and the Kyoto Protocol
2. To create incentives for people to carryout
certain offset projects
3. To increase carbon abatement that is
consistent with the protection of Australia’s
natural resource

12. Process
Operates via established methodologies to
approved:
• Emission avoidance projects
• Carbon sequestration projects
Under a strict governance program

13. Methodologies
 To be eligible, a project must comply with an approved methodology.
 Methodologies can be proposed by any ‘person’ (inc government).
 Methodology must:
Be measurable and verifiable;
Be supported by peer-reviewed published scientific results
 Account for GHG emissions resulting from the project, both direct
(eg emissions from nitrogen fertilisers used to enhance soil carbon) and
indirect (eg leakage from displacement of emissions activity to another
area);
 Adopt conservative estimates, projections and assumptions; and
For sequestration, take account of significant cyclical variations in
the sequestered carbon (eg fluctuations in annual average
rainfall, which will affect the levels of carbon stored in agricultural soils
and some forms of vegetation).

14. Process of supplying offset

15. Trading units
DESIGN FEATURE OF PROVISION IN THE CLEAN ENERGY BILL 2011
CARBON UNIT
Carbon Unit (CU) or Transitional 100% compliant supplied to trade exposed
Eligible Emission Unit industries and parts of the energy sector
Australian Carbon Kyoto ACCU /Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI)
Credit Unit (ACCU)
Kyoto Units Eligible International Emissions Unit (CER; ERU; RMU etc)
which is not for compliance during fixed price period
Non-Kyoto Units Non-Kyoto ACCU/ Carbon Farming Initiative which has limited
compliance value can be sold on voluntary market

16. Interactive overview
$
Care For Landcare Research
Our CFI program on
Country methodologies
Sustainable
(CFOC) farming
Program projects
Tax offsets on no-till equipment

17. Summary
In Climate Change policy terms its
a reasonably fair offer

18. 3. IMPACT AT FARM LEVEL

19. Farmers - Climate change
• Some degree of uncertainty at farm level
• A large number of farmers are still not
engaged in the climate change debate
• Interest is more concerned with impact and
adaptation

20. Farmers - Carbon offsets
• Question how does market relate to climate
change
• Lost in the complexity
• Concern about tax impact on inputs
• Concerned about market liability (100 years
for carbon sequestration)

21. Farmers - Engagement points
• Incentives: will respond to No-till tax offsets
• Nitrogen use efficiency