THE company behind one of the country’s most prominent carbon faming investors says the carbon market could remove half of Australia’s annual emissions without taking a hectare out of food production, while putting $5.5b into agriculture.

Macdoch Australia, which is headed up Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law Alasdair Macleod and owns the well-known Wilmot Cattle Company and Impact Ag, released modelling this week examining what it says is a conservative estimate of how much carbon could be drawn down across 15pc Australia without taking land out of production.

Macdoch is also part of a group called Growing Australia’s Nature Economy, which formed in recent times to promote the industry in the face of growing political pressure. (read recent article here or listen to the podcast below)

GANE convenor Brendan Foran said the modelling confirmed what many farmers were already demonstrating on the ground.

“This is one of the biggest opportunities in front of regional Australia. The same paddock can run the same cattle, grow the same grain and generate carbon credits. Farmers are paid twice from the same hectare: once by the saleyard and once by the emitter,” he said.

GANE convenor Brendan Foran. Photo: GreenCollar

“That’s a second income earned alongside food and fibre, not instead of it.”

Realising more of that opportunity will depend on approving new carbon methods. The proposed Integrated Farm and Land Management (IFLM) method would, for the first time, allow landholders to combine multiple carbon activities under a single project, making participation simpler and expanding access to the market.

The method completed public consultation earlier this year and is now awaiting consideration by the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee.

“The next phase of Australia’s carbon market isn’t about changing the destination. It’s about giving more farmers the tools to get there,” Mr Foran said.

“Approving more methods means more regional businesses can participate, more carbon can be stored and more private investment can flow into the bush. Mr Foran said.

GANE highlighted some properties they say are demonstrating the dual benefits of carbon farming:

• At Cheyenne Pastoral near Walcha, stock numbers have doubled during eight years in a soil carbon project, while owner Nick Blomfield earned around $100,000 from beef and a further $100,000 from Australian Carbon Credit Units in the same year.
• At Rexton near Goondiwindi, the property has been issued around 66,000 ACCUs while increasing sustainable grazing days from eight to 23 per hectare for every 100 millimetres of rainfall, a 185 per cent improvement.

GANE says the opportunity also aligns with Australia’s own climate policy. The Australian Government’s 2025 Net Zero Plan identifies land-based carbon removals as a critical part of reaching net zero and looks to farming and grazing land to deliver around 120 million tonnes of CO₂ removals each year by 2050.

Mr Foran said Australia’s farmers were ready to help deliver that goal while strengthening regional economies.

“Carbon markets are proving farmers don’t have to choose between producing food and producing environmental outcomes. Done properly, they deliver both.”

Source: GANE

• To read the modelling click here