‘A Soil Carbon Offset Scheme has the potential to sequester all of the 537 million tonnes of CO2 that Australia emits and generate $70 billion in Carbon Credit payments to the Australian economy.’ Andre Leu, Organic Federation of Australia Chair stated.
‘Long term scientific farming comparison trials show that organic systems sequestered an average of 7.4 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year into the soil.’
‘If Australia’s land managers could sequester an average of 7.4 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year into the soil of our 473 million hectares of agricultural land, that would equate to 3.5 billion tonnes of CO2 sequestered.’ Mr Leu said.
‘This is almost 7 times the 537 million tonnes of CO2 that was emitted in Australia in 2009 and would generate $70 billion in Carbon Credit payments to farmers and graziers at the current price.’
‘Just sequestering 1.1 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year would make Australia greenhouse gas neutral. This means that land managers can take 80 years to have a 1% increase in soil organic carbon and is achievable for most organic land managers. Many areas can achieve significantly higher rates of sequestration and this should more than compensate for lower rates in other areas.’ Andre stated.
‘The OFA is currently running Australian Government funded workshops around the country to teach farmers how to adapt these methods to their farming systems so that they can sequester CO2 into the soil.’ Tim Marshall, OFA Deputy Chair said.
‘The current price per tonne of CO2 on most Carbon/Climate Exchanges is around $20. Good organic farmers and graziers could earn around $150 per hectare per year on top of the money that they earn from their crops and livestock. This will be useful income for most farmers.’ Tim stated.
‘Scientific comparison studies show that organic systems are the most effective land management systems to store terrestrial carbon.’ said Mr Marshall.
‘Investing in research on the best ways to adapt these organic practices to Australia’s agricultural lands would be one of the fastest ways to reduce greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change. Furthermore, after years of neglect, serious funding is needed into organic research and development to improve the current practices.’ Dr Els Wynen, Deputy Chair stated.
The OFA held Australia’s first National Conference on Farming and Climate Change in 2006 and has been actively advocating for carbon credits for soil carbon.
