Boosting support for farmers and landholders
Boosting wider land action
The Government will purchase carbon credits through the Carbon Farming Initiative non-Kyoto Carbon Fund. This $250 million program over six years will create incentives to undertake land-based action such as the storing of soil carbon, revegetation and forest conservation.
Credits from these projects can also be sold to companies wanting to offset their carbon pollution to meet voluntary commitments to carbon neutrality.
Australia will continue working to develop new international rules that recognise a wider range of action to reduce pollution on the land. In future, this may allow landholders to sell credits from a wider variety of projects to companies with obligations under the carbon price.
Farmers and landholders have an important a role to play in reducing carbon pollution as governments, households and the wider business community.
Carbon Farming Initiative
The Carbon Farming Initiative will provide new economic rewards for farmers and landholders that take steps to reduce carbon pollution. It will do this by creating credits for each tonne of carbon pollution which can be stored or reduced on the land. These credits can then be sold to other businesses wanting to offset their own carbon pollution.
The Carbon Farming Initiative will create a new income stream for farmers, new jobs for rural and regional Australia and provide strong incentives to identify and implement low-cost methods of pollution reduction.
Carbon farming projects can increase resilience to the impacts of climate change, protect our natural environment, and increase farm profitability and food production. Increasing carbon storage in agricultural soils improves soil health and productivity. Revegetation will help restore degraded landscapes, provide biodiversity habitats and corridors, and help to address salinity, protect livestock and reduce erosion.
For more information see Chapter 9 – Creating opportunities on the land or download the Carbon Farming Initiative factsheet.
For further information about the Australian Government’s plan for the land see:
↑ Back to Top
Farming for the future
Conservation tillage
The Carbon Farming Futures program will include specific support for conservation tillage equipment. This will be delivered by a 15 per cent refundable tax offset for eligible equipment. This will incentivise farmers to move to zero till and minimum tillage farming techniques which can enhance soil carbon, water retention and productivity.
Farmers will be required to participate in research and methodology development to assist efforts to settle methods for crediting soil carbon under the Carbon Farming Initiative.
Carbon Farming Futures
The Carbon Farming Futures program will deliver $429 million over six years to help farmers and other landholders benefit from financial opportunities under the Carbon Farming Initiative:
- support will be provided for research to investigate new ways of storing carbon and reducing emissions in the land sector, including biochar and biofuels
- this ongoing program will support landholders to take action such as testing new ways to increase soil carbon and reduce emissions
- new funding will be made available to test more effective methods for measuring carbon stored in soils and to integrate carbon farming into everyday farm business
- extension officers and outreach activities will give landholders access to information to help them benefit from carbon farming.
These measures will improve the sustainability and profitability of Australian farmers and landholders.
For more information see Chapter 9 – Creating opportunities on the land.
For further information about the Australian Government’s plan for the land see:
↑ Back to Top
Supporting skills in land management
Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund
The Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund will help Indigenous Australians to take full advantage of the Carbon Farming Initiative. Funding will be provided for specialists to work with Indigenous communities on carbon farming projects. The Fund will support the development and uptake of Carbon Farming Initiative activities which are likely to have high Indigenous participation such as savanna fire management.
Further support for research, tools and low cost methods for estimating and reporting on emissions abatement will be available. This Fund will make it easier for Indigenous groups to participate in the Carbon Farming Initiative by addressing barriers associated with communal and native title land tenure.
Carbon Farming Skills
The Carbon Farming Initiative will increase demand for carbon services and provide new career opportunities in rural and regional Australia.
A new nationally accredited qualification will be developed for carbon service providers (such as carbon brokers and aggregators), who will connect farmers and landholders to the carbon market. This initiative will support high standards in an important and emerging industry.
The Carbon Farming Skills program will ensure that there are people in regional Australia with the necessary skills to support implementation of the Carbon Farming Initiative. It will further drive the development of the carbon jobs sector by setting up a training and accreditation system, boosting rural and regional employment.
Information and training workshops will be provided for farm extension officers, catchment management authorities, agronomists and other rural service providers. This will ensure that landholders have access to credible, high quality advice about carbon farming opportunities.
For more information see Chapter 9 – Creating opportunities on the land.
For further information about the Australian Government’s plan for the land see:
↑ Back to Top
Unlocking the benefits of biodiversity
Regional Planning for Climate Change
Regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) organisations are well placed to help plan for climate change and to maximise the social and environmental benefits of carbon farming projects.
Around $44 million over five years will go to make regional NRM plans climate-ready. This will include funding to develop detailed scenarios on climate change impacts on a regional level.
The plans will guide where biosequestration projects should be located in the landscape.
This whole of region approach will help to maximise the benefits for biodiversity, water and agricultural production.
The plans will provide an assessment of how projects can maximise landscape resilience, improving each region’s ability to tackle and adapt to Australia’s changing climate.
Biodiversity Fund
Australia has highly diverse native ecosystems. Biodiversity plays a crucial role in maintaining the productive capacity of our landscape. Restoring native vegetation and soil carbon can build and protect our biodiversity and store carbon pollution.
The ongoing Biodiversity Fund has been allocated $946 million over the first six years of the program and will support projects that establish, restore, protect or manage biodiverse carbon stores. Funding will be provided for establishing mixed species
plantings in targeted 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 biodiverse carbon stores. This includes land already under conservation covenants, subject to land clearing restrictions, and publicly owned native forests.
These measures will help protect Australia’s ecosystems, building resilience to the impacts of climate change.
For more information see Chapter 9 – Creating opportunities on the land.
For further information about the Australian Government’s plan for the land see:
↑ Back to Top
Carbon Price
Energy Efficiency
Renewable Energy
Land use 
