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.

The federal government’s Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DOCCEE) have released another two draft carbon farming methodologies for public comment under the 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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. Destruction of methane generated from piggeries

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:

1. Covering anaerobic lagoons;
2. Installing a gas collection and combustion system (flares or electricity generation system);
3. Collecting the biogas; and
4. Combusting the methane component of the biogas.

Read more about methadologies on the DOCCEE website.

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 30^th June.

See the full report here.