Creating new opportunities for Australian farmers and landholders
New markets for farmers
According to Professor Garnaut, incentives that realise the 'immense technical potential' of the land sector to absorb emissions could greatly expand the economic prospects of rural Australia'.
The Carbon Farming Initiative will inject money into rural communities by allowing farmers, forest growers or landholders to generate carbon credits to sell into domestic and international carbon markets.
Carbon Farming Initiative
The rural sector can play a critical role in Australia's carbon mitigation effort. In recognition of this the Government will establish the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) to create a new income stream for farmers and landholders at the same time as reducing emissions. The Government will provide $45.6 million over four years to support the Initiative.
By enabling farmers to generate and sell carbon credits, the CFI will grant farmers access to lucrative abatement markets. These credits will provide a new revenue stream for rural and regional Australia worth hundreds of millions of dollars even with agricultural emissions excluded from the carbon price mechanism.
As the National Farmers Federation has stated '...the CFI demonstrates the positive role agriculture can play in mitigating against carbon emissions through on‑farm management.'
The Initiative will provide farmers, landholders and forestry growers with the tools to understand how to generate carbon credits. The Initiative also includes funding for Landcare to assist farmers reduce their emissions and benefit from the Initiative.
Greenhouse gas emissions being measured using a fully automated system. These measurements will be used in the development of methodologies under the Carbon Farming Initiative.