That is weird I can access it and am not a subscriber!
https://www.afr.com/news/politics/carbon-farming-scheme-pays-money-to-plant-tree...First gold, then iron ore and coal. Now carbon farming is shaping as a new boom industry for regional Australia.
While critics of the $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund have lampooned the idea of paying farmers to grow trees rather than stop big polluters from cutting their emissions, proponents say it could help create much needed jobs in the regions.
West Australian Indigenous elder Kado Muir says the $40 million contract won by the Goldfields Carbon Group to grow millions of trees near Kalgoorlie will not only help save the environment, but also deliver hundreds of jobs for Indigenous Australians.
Traditional owner Kado Muir says planting trees will save the environment and create jobs. Tyne Logan
The federal government has awarded more than $1.7 billion from its $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund with most of the money being allocated to land-use projects.
"This is a full-grown commercial employment opportunity for Aboriginal people that has massive environmental outcomes and about bringing youth back to old pastoral lands that have partly been abandoned," Mr Muir told The Weekend Financial Review.
"If land has been damaged after generations of farming, the environment suffers – this is a way to fix it up."
Mr Muir, who is running on the WA Nationals Senate ticket in the July 2 election, says the Walkatjurra Rangers will be contracted to do the seed collecting, planting and maintaining of the land which is on former and current pastoral leases. Some planting machines will also be used.
Entrepreneur Rod Carter, a former school teacher in Kalgoorlie, is behind the Goldfield Renewal Project which is aiming to plant 40 million trees on 200,000 hectares during the first 10 years of the scheme.
The first stage of the project has been contracted to deliver almost 4 million tonnes of carbon abatement from the planting of Mulga and sandalwood trees. At an average contract price of just over $10 a tonne, that could deliver $40 million over the 10-year contract.
He has ambitions to plant 1 billion trees on 3 million hectares on "The "Woodlines" land which was cleared through the Kalgoorlie goldfields over the past 150 years.
"Hundreds of millions of trees were cut down during an 80-year period. It's the largest area of deforestation in Australia. It's our intention with this project to basically replace those trees that were cut down," says Mr Carter.
"We're not looking at the Emissions Reduction Fund as a panacea, just to get started. This will create a massive footprint of carbon for Australia."
Big business has shied away from the first three auctions by the Clean Energy Regulator with 47.2 million of the 50.5 million tonnes allocated from the latest auction from vegetation programs.
Farmers, companies and Indigenous groups have won contracts to reduce carbon emissions by growing trees, burning savanna woodland or collecting and burning gas from landfill.
Climate Friendly director Josh Harris, who is co-ordinating more than 60 projects across Australia, says the Emissions Reduction Fund had spurned a new industry.
He says smaller companies are jumping in because they can make key decisions relatively quickly without waiting for the board of a publicly listed company to decide which price to bid in the twice-yearly silent auctions.
"There is a bunch of big industrial projects but they just haven't been successful in these auctions. Farmers are turning to these projects because things like cattle aren't paying the bills anymore," he says.
"We think carbon will be the next wave of economic development for these rural communities. We've seen gold and iron ore, now it's carbon. There's been huge growth for us."
Climate Friendly uses Google Maps and project officers to help keep track of carbon farming projects, measuring trees (for how much carbon they are absorbing) and filling in the paperwork for the federal government. They are using methodology provided by the CSIRO and the Department of Environment.
The information is then audited and sent to the Clean Energy Regulator. Proponents are not paid their annual instalments unless targets are reached.
Clean Energy Regulator chairwoman Chloe Munro said while the legislation focused on purchasing carbon abatement at the lower cost, there were other benefits from the scheme.
"We are single-mindedly focused on carbon abatement but these schemes do have other benefits such as encouraging entrepreneurial activities and innovation. We are seeing new business arise that weren't there before," she says.
But Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said the Emissions Reduction Fund was not doing enough to stop Australia's carbon emissions from continuing to rise and more needed to be done to reach the Coalition's target of 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030.
"We now urgently need to get down to the policies that matter – this process should start with a closure plan for Australia's old and inefficient coal-burning power plants so they can be replaced with clean energy alternatives over the next 20 years," he said.
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Mark Ludlow writes on politics, energy and infrastructure based in Brisbane. Connect with Mark on Twitter. Email Mark at mludlow@afr.com.au
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