Next step in carbon farming

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, announced on Friday 11 March 2011 another step in implementing the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), a carbon offsets scheme which is designed to provide new economic opportunities for farmers, forest growers and landholders, and help the environment by reducing carbon pollution.

“From today, people will be able to submit methodologies to the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee to be assessed for use under the CFI,” Combet said.

“This means that methodologies developed by early movers can be considered, and any remaining technical issues resolved, in advance of the CFI legislation. People will then be able to get started with their project planning and realise early investment opportunities,” he said.

Landcare facilitators from around Australia met this week in Canberra to discuss the CFI and how to work with regional and rural Australia, so that farmers and other landholders understand the benefits and obligations which will arise from taking part.

The Interim Guidelines for Submitting Methodologies are now available on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website. These have been developed following public consultation on the proposed CFI design, which closed last month.

“During the consultation stakeholders gave us feedback on an early draft of the guidelines, which have been considered in the document published today,” Combet said.

The government expects to introduce the CFI legislation to the parliament in the first half of 2011.

The Interim Guidelines for Submitting Methodologies have been prepared to allow early assessment of CFI methodologies. This will fast-track offset projects when the scheme starts.

The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee was announced on 27 October 2010 to assess the technical merit of offset methodologies and ensure that CFI projects result in real abatement.

Methodologies may be developed by private proponents or government agencies.

Further information on the CFI is available on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website at: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/cfi.