Carbon farming benefits and opportunities
In South Australia, carbon farming is still a small and emerging industry. Its economic, environmental and social outcomes can benefit our primary industries and regional communities.
Carbon farming can be a single change in land management, such as revegetating landscapes or grazing management.
It can also be an integrated plan using the whole property that maximises carbon capture and emissions reduction.
Environmental benefits
Climate change poses a significant risk to our future primary industries. Carbon farming presents potential to:
- restore our landscapes
- upgrade natural asset capital
- meet greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Carbon farming practices help landowners to:
- improve agricultural resilience and productivity through farm-based forestry
- diversify income through carbon stored in forestry plantations
- achieve sustainable landscape management.
Carbon market opportunities
Market access
Carbon farming provides an opportunity to support industry, business and government in reaching net zero emission targets. It allows the sector to verify on-farm activities, leading to potentially:
- offsetting emissions
- demonstrating carbon neutrality and sustainable practices
- creating new low emission products.
The ability to measure and accurately demonstrate emission reduction, as well as other sustainable or environmental benchmarks, will become important for primary industries and the supply chain.
National and global companies are setting new sustainable and carbon neutral targets all the time. This helps to meet shifting consumer brand expectations and some international markets requirements.
Those targets could be a supply-chain risk, requiring our producers to meet sustainability and emission benchmarks to maintain market access.
Carbon offsets
The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is the Australian Government's voluntary carbon offsets scheme, allowing land managers to access diversified income.
Carbon farming can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as carbon in growing plants. Projects adhering to these vegetation and agricultural methods can earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Each ACCU represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions stored or avoided.
Participants can sell ACCUs to private investors and businesses wanting to offset their carbon emissions.
The ERF process can be complex and is a new opportunity for the agricultural sector. Those considering an ERF project can participate directly or with the support of a service provider. You should work with organisations that have signed the carbon industry code of conduct.
Emerging environmental markets
The Australian Government supports a market for biodiversity through the Agricultural Stewardship Package. This may facilitate a credit-based system, similar to carbon credits, for biodiversity improvements.
Other environmental markets, such as the Reef Credit scheme in Queensland, demonstrate the potential of diverse income streams to be offered to land managers.
Related information
- Carbon Market Institute – factsheets explaining carbon farming and carbon market opportunities.
- Climate Active – Australia Government’s carbon neutral certification scheme.
- Pathways to carbon neutral (or net zero) agricultural systems video – a practical explanation of profitable, sustainable and socially acceptable pathways to carbon neutral or net zero emissions in agricultural systems.
