THE Federal Government has announced plans for the development of new carbon methodologies, as the carbon industry awaits the development of one methodology that has been years in the making.
Speaking to the Australian Emissions Reduction summit today, the federal climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen said the Government received several applications for new methodologies, with four reaching the next stage, including:
- Improved Native Forest Management in Multiple-use Public Forests,proposed by the NSW Government, incentivising government forest management agencies to deliver carbon abatement in relation to harvesting of native forests grown for timber.
- Extending Savanna Fire Management to the Northern Arid Zone, proposed by the Indigenous Desert Alliance. This will expand the areas where savanna fire management can be undertaken, providing greater economic opportunities and connection to Country for First Nations peoples and communities across northern Australia.
- Improved Avoided Clearing of Native Regrowth to incentivise retaining regrowth at high risk of re-clearing.
- Reducing disturbance of coastal and floodplain wetlands by managing hooved animals such as water buffalo and pigs, proposed by Northern Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance and The University of Queensland.
One methodology that has been in the making for the past two years has been Integrated Farm and Land Management, which will allow for several projects to be stacked into one audit and is expected to replace the country’s most used methodology called Human Induced Regeneration – which was cancelled last year.
While the draft of the methodology was expected at the end of this year, Minister Bowen said it was now likely to be next year.
The development of the new methodology has left many in the industry in waiting. Asked whether the delay in development was due to a lack of resources in the department, Minister Bowen said a lot was being asked of the department.
“It is because of a heavy agenda, because we are doing so much,” he said.
“I have just outlined considerable progress with new method development, not everything can be done on the same day and nor should it be. A rushed process would be entirely counterproductive for this sector.”
Carbon Market Institute chief executive officer John Connor welcomed the Government’s commitments.
“This method will result in the ACCU scheme providing greater incentives to farmers and other landowners in return for climate action,” Connor said.
All options must be on the table: Opposition
Opposition energy minister Ted O’Brien also addressed the summit, talking up the opposition’s plans to add nuclear the country’s energy mix.
“The question is not ‘why act on climate change’ but ‘how?’,” he said
“The last thing we can afford to do is to leavy any options on the table.”
Mr O’Brien said while he was unsure about the opposition’s plans with the safeguard mechanism, he believed the current scheme was not working.
“The feedback I get from the marketplace is that there are serious problems with the way it is operating, things are stalling.
“We had an ACCU scheme that was operating effectively and the Chubb review said just that,” he said.
“We were beaten up in the last term of Government by people saying the whole scheme is not working.”
He said he believed in the carbon market in-principal.
“We have to be driven by certain principals and one of them is ‘all of the above’,” he said.
This carbon stuff is such nonsense. The real opportunity is in letting farmers farm what they’re good at, not concocting a one-size-fits-all newspeak alchemy industry so ‘investors’ can be ‘ethical’ and so other groups can light fires without risk of imprisonment.