Clean Energy Future

Farming has an important role to play in reducing Australia’s carbon emissions and the Government is providing opportunities to those on the land through the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI).

The CFI is a carbon offsets scheme that is providing new economic opportunities for farmers and land managers while also helping the environment by reducing carbon pollution.

Under the CFI, farmers and land managers are able to generate credits that can then be sold to other business wanting to offset their own carbon pollution.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the land is important, as agriculture and forestry account for about 25 per cent of the nation’s emissions.

The CFI comprises several methodologies aimed at creating incentives to reduce emissions from agriculture and increase carbon storage in soils and vegetation.

A successful project approved under the Destruction of Methane Generated from Manure in Piggeries methodology is at Blantyre Farm in Young, NSW.

This project captures methane emissions produced by the manure of the farm’s 22,000 pigs and, utilising a biogas fuelled generator, has lowered the landholder’s monthly electricity bill from $15,000 to zero, and the farm is now earning $5,000 a month selling electricity back to the grid. This power generation project is expected to pay for itself in three years.

Fish River Station, about 200 kilometres south of Darwin, has become the first project approved under the Savanna Burning CFI methodology.

The project, which involves strategically burning the rangelands in the early months of the dry season, aims to reduce the fuel load and the severity of late season fires, which are major contributors to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. The project provides an important source of employment, and has the potential to produce about 20,000 carbon credits a year which can be sold in the carbon market.

The Government is also supporting the further development of methodologies through the Carbon Farming Futures program, which includes research into new technologies and practices for land managers to reduce emissions and store soil carbon, and provides grants for landholders to apply and test these new practices in real farming situations.

For further information visit the Carbon Farming Initiative.