December 2021 - WA Carbon Connections

This month:

• Carbon West’s soil testing capability  

• COP26 wrap for Australian farmers 

• Our ‘why’ for soil carbon 

First, as always, a carbon price update:

Carbon West soil testing 

Carbon West is very excited to announce that we’ve expanded our capability in the soil carbon industry with the purchase of a soil core extraction rig. We’ve commissioned a purpose-built machine for extracting soil cores which meet the very high standards demanded by the Emissions Reduction Fund’s soil carbon in agricultural systems methodology. The new rig will be operational in the new year.  

Carbon West’s aim is to make soil quality measurements affordable and valuable for landholders. Generating verified carbon credits requires extremely rigorous governance and there’s more to taking a soil sample than the little pogo sticks most farmers are used to.  The Carbon West rig uses the Geoprobe MC5 core tube system and can extract samples from as deep as 1.5 metres. The soil is contained in a sleeve for safe, easy transfer from the field to the lab. 

Additionally, Carbon West’s rig will have a hand-held spectrometer for use on our soil carbon projects – an investment in the big push to bring down the cost of soil carbon measurement.  

If you’re interested in starting a soil carbon project in the new year (under the new, improved 2021 methodology), or just want a high-quality indication of your current soil carbon levels, please feel free to give us a call.  

Was there anything from COP26 that affects WA farmers?

We have all weathered the media whirlwind that came with COP26 in Glasgow this month, so we’ll keep it brief here. Did anything that happened in Glasgow have any significance for Australian farmers? The short answer is “yes” ... and the long answer is “yes, but not very much, and not immediately”. Read on: 

Two key items may have a bearing on how we run our farms: the first is a renewed focus on methane emissions reductions as being of great importance in minimising climate risk. Despite our domestic politics continuing to resist the idea of incentivising or mandating reductions in methane emissions, this development in Glasgow it is making it more likely that a lack of methane reductions by the agriculture industry in Australia could lead to other countries which have signed on enforcing these requirements on our exports. Carbon neutrality of farms is likely to become a must if farmers value international market access. 

The second point which may have some importance for Aussie farmers is the agreement on Article 6. Without diving too deep into something as dense as the Paris Agreement articles, Article 6 is a crucial one for carbon credit trading. Basically, Article 6 sets the rules for trading carbon credits internationally. As you might expect, it can get tricky trying to decide if a carbon credit from Australia is the equivalent of a carbon credit from Japan for example. The agreements made on Article 6 at COP26 have brought legitimate international trading closer. This is also shown in the growing Indo-Pacific Carbon Offsets Scheme (IPCOS) which could potentially open up ACCU sales to countries including Indonesia, Japan, Korea and others.  

For our farmers, this means there are even more good reasons to initiate a carbon project. Whether it’s storing carbon in soil, establishing shelter belt plantings, revegetating creeklines, reducing livestock emissions or developing plantations (or a combination of all of the above), generating ACCUs on farms seems to be an increasingly good idea.  

Soil carbon: stabilising agriculture’s future

We just want to briefly reflect on why taking action to build carbon in soil is an absolute ‘no-brainer’.  

Carbon West is built on the belief that improving soil health will improve all aspects of agriculture 

The level of organic carbon in soil is a good indicator of soil health and brings many benefits. It enables greater water-holding capacity of soil, increases erosion resistance, and supports soil biological diversity which enables plants to access more soil nutrients. 

It will take time, effort and money to improve soil carbon levels, as will establishing a carbon project to generate carbon credits. But when possible carbon neutrality and carbon income can offset those costs, a carbon project could be an excellent motivator for the main prize: Healthy soil. 

Unlike most carbon service providers, Carbon West does not require farmers to sign a 25-year contract, and doesn’t ‘clip the ticket’ on carbon credits generated.  We are to carbon as an accountant is to a tax return.  And... maybe, just like a tax return, offsetting our carbon may, one day, be something we all just have to do.   

2021 Wrap

Phew! That's it for the 2021 editions of WA Carbon Connections!  
Thanks to everyone who reads the newsletters for making this effort worthwhile! It’s been a big year for carbon, with plenty of exciting developments for us at Carbon West and the carbon industry as a whole. 2021 has seen the ACCU price more than double from $18.50 in our first edition back in February to $41.50 today, we've registered one of the first soil carbon projects in WA and have quite a few more in the pipeline. 

We wish all of our readers a happy and relaxing Christmas and new year and look forward to working with you in 2022! 

Quote of the day:

“Ultimately, the only wealth that can sustain any community, economy or nation is derived from the photosynthetic process - green plants growing on regenerating soil.” - Allan Savory