Agriculture Takes Center Stage in Australia's Climate Bill

EKO ECO Guest Blogger on July 31, 2009 Comment

By Avril David, Contributor for Forest Carbon Portal

The leader of Australia's opposition party recently announced that his party would not vote for an Emissions Trading Scheme in which the agricultural sector is regulated, arguing that the carbon sequestration potential of Australia's land mass is its greatest strength in combating rising CO2 emissions. The Rudd Government's current proposal includes agriculture as a covered sector.

If you're feeling a sense of déjà vu, it's for good reason - in both the US and the EU, the agricultural sector has been exempt from emissions caps under current climate legislation. Here in the US, the agricultural lobby has continued to play a major role in the scope and features of the US Clean Energy and Security act, winning major concessions in both the addition of temporary agricultural carbon offsets to the bill and securing the USDA, rather than EPA, for administration over an agricultural carbon offset program.

With this announcement from Australia's opposition, it seems agriculture has taken center stage in forming climate policy yet again, with important implications for Copenhagen this December. The UN recently approved the first Agricultural CDM methodology and terrestrial carbon offsets were a major focus of recent climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany. It appears that regardless of the exact details, farmers throughout the developed and developing world will be seeking to profit from agricultural carbon offsets. How this potentially vast supply of agricultural carbon offsets will be integrated into an effective and ecologically sound climate change mitigation treaty has yet to be seen.