There is still a lot of negativity in the agriculture community about the governments Clean Energy Future policy, here is a letter written to the Countryman about why the policy has merit! See the link here
Pick a winner – Bioenergy
This a great article on where Europe is at in terms of how they have used a carbon tax to finance bio energy and highlights how far behind Australia is. Read more!
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Carbon Price – Insuring our future
Whatever side of the political fence you sit the federal government’s announcement yesterday does have some good outcomes for rural communities.
- The Carbon Faming Initiative will pay farmers who change the way they farm and use practices that lock up carbon in trees or in the soil and who reduce their on farm emissions.
- Carbon Farming Futures program ($429 million over the first six years) will help farmers and landholders benefit from carbon farming by supporting research and development, measurement and action to reduce emissions or store carbon, including support for conservation tillage equipment.
- Biodiversity Fund $946 million over the first six years to support projects that establish, restore, protect or manage bio diverse carbon stores. Funding will be provided for establishing mixed species plantings in target areas, such as areas of high conservation value including wildlife corridors, riparian zones and wetlands. The Fund will also support action to prevent the spread of invasive species across connected landscapes and the management of existing bio diverse carbon stores. Includes land already under conservation covenants, subject to land clearing restrictions, and publicly owned native forests.
- The plan also provides a pathway for Australia to transition toward more sustainable energy and rural communities will benefit.
The reality is that we have to move away from energy sources like coal and oil for two reasons. Fossil fuels pollute and they are non-renewable, meaning, that once we use them they are gone.
As people in the bush are large fuel users we are especially subject to fluctuations in fuel prices and are at risk of energy security. Take the Libya conflict for example, when that started, we all saw a rise in fuel prices. Peak oil is another issue that we should be concerned about, if it is real and we are at the risk of running out of oil, what will this do to prices and our ability to secure fuel for our operations?
What this plan does is provide the necessary mechanisms for us to move away from our reliance on fossil fuels and provide pathways for investment to flow to less carbon intensive energy sources.
As farmers we have the capacity to produce electricity and grow our own fuel through existing and emerging energy technologies. The problem in the past is that these types of technologies are very expensive to develop, it’s so much cheaper to use the fuel that is dug out of the ground and be the price takers we have always been.
A price on carbon will change this as polluters, having to pay for the emission they create, look at new ways to become energy efficient and create cleaner energy. Investment will look to wind, wave, solar (what we all want to see more of) and what’s especially exciting for rural communities, biomass energy.
Biomass energy means taking our waste streams like the straw from the back of the header that we are burning to control weeds, capturing this straw (and the weeds) and using technology to convert it to create clean electricity and fuel which we can use ourselves or sell to the market. Imagine that…using fuel grown on our own farms!
This is an insurance policy for the future and one we need to understand fully to get an idea of how it affects us individually however, most of us insure our car and our home so why not the future.
For more information on how the Governments Clean Energy Future affects the land, click here.
Farmers fueling flights!
Its moments like these that tell me we are on the right path and its going to be an exciting future for agriculture. Richard Bransons Virgin have just announced a consortium with Renewable Oil Corporation (ROC), Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (DYMTF) and Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FFI CRC) to develop a sustainable aviation biofuels with benefits that will flow to the Australian farming community and the environment.
I believe this highlights the fact that investment is moving away from carbon intensive energy toward more sustainable low carbon sources and farmers have opportunities to not only become energy producers for the wider community but for their own farming operations…imagine that!
Read more here
Posted in Bioenergy, Renewable Energy
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More draft methodologies released for the CFI
The federal government’s Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DOCCEE) have released another two draft methodologies for public comment under its Carbon Farming Initiative. Comments open until 26th July 2011.
1. Environmental Plantings
This methodology involves the establishment and management of permanent native forests that increase removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The abatement activity includes planting and/or seeding native species on cleared or partially cleared land.
This methodology applies to projects that meet the following requirements:
- Established through direct seeding or planting. This methodology does not apply to projects that involve the promotion and management of natural seed sources that result in regrowth.
- Do not involve harvesting of wood products, with the exception of firewood for personal use. Under this methodology, proponents can remove a maximum of 10% of debris per year. Proponents may undertake some thinning for the purposes of promoting carbon sequestration, fire management or other ecological benefits, provided that the biomass remains onsite and the forest continues to meet the RMT requirements outlined above. Other removals of biomass would impact on the variability of carbon stocks and require application of an averaging approach, which is not covered by this methodology.
- Involve establishment of environmental plantings. Environmental plantings include species native to the local area, typically a mix of trees and understorey species, but can be single species where monocultures naturally occur. The ‘mixed species environmental planting’ setting in the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT) is calibrated for permanent, native forest sinks and must be used for this methodology.
- Do not involve on-going grazing by livestock. Projects may involve occasional grazing after the trees are established, e.g. occasional grazing to manage fuel load and weeds. The methodology does not include procedures for calculating impacts of grazing on tree establishment or emissions from livestock.
- Established on land that has been clear or partially clear of forest for the five years prior to project commencement. If the area would convert to forest without the project, no abatement would be generated through reforestation.
2. Manure management in intensive livestock farming
The methodology involves the capture of biogas generated by the decomposition of the piggery manure waste in anaerobic lagoons, and the combustion of the methane component of the biogas. The abatement activity includes:
- Covering anaerobic lagoons;
- Installing a gas collection and combustion system (flares or electricity generation system);
- Collecting the biogas; and
- Combusting the methane component of the biogas.
Click here to read more on the DOCCEE website.
Where’s the oil going to come from – Peak oil and the oil crunch!
Is peak oil and the impending oil crunch something we have to be concerned about? Watch the ABC’s Catalyst peak oil report from April 2011 and make up your own mind.
The question is, where will the oil come from if we are already in this situation? Does this give Australian farmers opportunities to grow their own fuel? If it does, we have to start moving and investigate ways to make this happen.
Posted in Peak Oil, The Oil Crunch
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Get in behind.
The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) and Sheep & Meat Producers Australia have released a report stating that sheep and meat producers in Australia will endure a 16 percent loss in business revenue under the Government’s proposed carbon tax. You can access the full article and report here.
I encourage groups like NFF and for all members of the farming industry to carry out these types of studies however, I believe that this particular study is a little off the mark and I think too early to condem the carbon tax outright. The report does not factor in the revenue that could be derived from the introduction of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) or the future potential of investment flowing to rural communities for low carbon products such as bio energy, biofuels and carbon offsets.
Currently, farmers will not be liable for any direct emissions (i.e. when you start your tractor up and burn diesel or the methane that is released from a sheep or cow when it burps). This may change in the future if the government include us in the proposed carbon pricing scheme and farmers should begin to understand what emissions are generated through their farming practices. Once we have this understanding, we can better begin to manage any adverse impacts that may come with the introduction of a carbon price.
Costs such as diesel, transport and inputs such as fertilisers are where farmers might be hit the hardest as manufactures and processors look to pass on costs. However, it is these same costs and inputs that have a high carbon intensity and with the introduction of a carbon price, farmers have the ability to actually profit from adopting innovative practices and becoming less carbon intensive.
An example of this is the work being done to reduce methane emissions from sheep. The Sheep CRC (CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation) is one such body and as this work progresses, offsets will be able to be generated under the CFI for sheep farmers who can demonstrate that they are reducing methane emissions through changing diet and gut flora manipulation. Click here for details
In terms of farm profitabilty ABARE released a report last year that stated that offsets schemes have the potential to achieve emissions abatement in Australian agriculture and while the effects are projected to differ between sectors, the introduction of a domestic offsets scheme is projected to increase total agricultural production and decrease production costs (adjusted for offsets credits) and have a positive effect on the performance of Australian agriculture to 2030. See full report
Until we see the details of the scheme I really think that we need to keep an open mind about a carbon price and its effect on Australian agriculture The world is moving toward a low carbon economy and we need to move with it. A price on carbon may have an impact on some areas of the rural sector initially but the positives will provide farmers with new opportunities and the ability to achieve real sustainability moving forward.
Release of carbon farming initiative positive and negative list consultation paper.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency released the positive and negative list discussion paper for the Carbon Farming Initiative yesterday.
The positive list identifies activities that would be considered additional and eligible to participate in the scheme while the negative list identifies activities that are ineligible in certain circumstances because they risk adverse impacts on communities and the environment.
The consultation paper provides an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the approach to developing the positive and negative lists and to propose activities for consideration. All Submissions are due on 30th June.
China and India’s response to climate change!
I often hear the comment “whatever Australia does domestically to reduce its emissions, it will have no real impact on global temperatures” and get asked the question “what are countries like China and India doing to reduce their emissions”
Now while it’s true that Australia’s emissions are very low on a per country basis (though we are the highest per capita) and whatever we do will not have a significant impact globally, under the Kyoto protocol, we are one of 37 industrialised countries working together and it’s this combined effort that is important as we respond to a changing climate.
As for China, the China Climate Change Info-Net is a good source of information on what China is doing in response to climate change. The website outlines China’s policy on climate change, what action is being taken on the ground to reduce emissions, China’s green energy goals and reports and communications relative to climate change.
India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests Climate Change website lists initiatives such as increasing significantly, the capacity of renewable energy installations, improving the air quality in major cities (the world’s largest fleet of vehicles fuelled by compressed natural gas has been introduced in New Delhi); and enhancing afforestation.
Posted in Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol
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CSIRO’s new book – Climate Change: Science and Solutions for Australia
The scientific evidence that human activities are contributing to climate change is compelling however, there is still a large sector of the community sceptical of the science and society is increasingly seeking information about the nature of the evidence and what can be done to respond to a changing climate.
CSIRO has released a new book titled, Climate Change: Science and Solutions for Australia. It’s a good source of information and a guide to underpin decisions for business, government members, researchers, academics and the general public involved or interested in climate change science.
Download the book here
Posted in Climate Change
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