Get set for a "Carbon Windfall"

The farm sector is poised for a "carbon windfall", according to ma report in Stock & Land, June 22, 2006

"A NATIONAL emissions trading scheme has the potential to pour more than $600 million into Australian farm coffers over five years," says Farm Online. "A new report on the implications of a trading scheme for the farm sector found that even at conservative prices of $6-$10 per tonne of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), the ability to trade emissions offsets created from improved farm practices could deliver between $360 and $600m in revenue over five years."

At prices around the level of the spot market operating under the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme, the potential revenue windfall would be double that.

Carbon credits for cow s---!

US dairy farmers are now being paid carbon credits. Darryl Vander Haak, a dairy farmer in Lynden, Washington State, and Dennis Haubenschild, from Princeton, Minnesota, were the first to be paid for capturing methane, a greenhouse gas, from manure on their farms using anaerobic digesters. “It’s one more revenue stream that helps us keep producing milk for our customers,” said Mr Vander Haak. The two dairy farmers were credited with preventing the release of over 720 tons of methane - equivalent to more than 13,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. At current prices of $2/ton, the “carbon credits” produced by these two projects are worth more than $26,000. They will generate additional credits each year.
"American farmers deserve to be recognized for the actions they take to reduce global warming. Cash for carbon credits is a great place to start,” says Jim Jensen, of Environmental Credit Corp. (ECC), a leading supplier of environmental credits to global financial markets. ECC, a part of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), worked with the farmers to certify their methane emission reductions. The CCX is the world’s first (and North America’s only) voluntary, legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system. Manure accounts for 6.6% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Anaerobic digester technology is used to control odors, produce renewable power and organic soil treatments.
Pictured:Dairy farmer Darryl Vander Haak receives his first cheque for carbon credits from Jim Jensen of Environmental Credit Corp. (Photo: ECC)

Congress rebuffs Bush 3 times on Climate

America's alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, the Asia Pacific Climate Partnership (AP6), recently took a hit when the Bush Administration's request for funding to kick it off was rejected by the House of Representatives. Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress support more substantial measures to reduce greenhouse emissions along the lines of the Kyoto Protocol.
AP6 rejects mandatory cap and trade regimes, believing there is time to develop technology solutions to the climate crisis. President Bush promised $250m to fund AP6. But Congress holds the purse strings, and the House Appropriations Committee rejected it. This defeat marks the third time the Bush administration attempted and failed to obtain funding for its climate plan.
The Partnership - whose members include non-Kyoto countries America and Australia, plus signatories China, India, Japan and South Korea - rejects emission reduction targets. The US and Australia are the only members to commit funds so far.

"I'm no longer sceptical" - David Attenborough

"I was sceptical about climate change. I was cautious about crying wolf. . . . But I'm no longer sceptical," said David Attenborough in an article in British newspaper The Independent. "Now I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. I have waited until the proof was conclusive that it was humanity changing the climate. The thing that really convinced me was the graphs connecting the increase of carbon dioxide in the environment and the rise in temperature, with the growth of human population and industrialisation. The coincidence of the curves made it perfectly clear we have left the period of natural climatic oscillation behind and have begun on a steep curve, in terms of temperature rise, beyond anything in terms of increases that we have seen over many thousands of years."

Makin' Carbon

This is what 2000 sheep can do to 10 acres in 24 hours. This is called animal impact. We let this lot dry off – the first shot taken in December.










Then we let them in mid March to eat what they can find and stomp the rest in to the ground, along with their poop and piddle. It is a natural tilling and fertilising effect.









Long periods of rest followed by high intensity grazing and disturbance is the white man’s way of encourag-ing the perennial pastures.








The perennials are deep-rooted and they aerate and fertilise soil and make it porous and spongey and more likely to hold water longer. The biomass beneath the soil is the secret carbon storage facility that out-performs forests.















And this is what it looks like 6 weeks later in late April (a non-growing season). Fresh grass growing green with no rain.

Meet Coalition Members Online

Great News!

Now you can 'meet' members of the Carbon Coalition online and share ideas and opinions when you sign up as a member of the Coalition discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carboncoalition.

You can use it to read and reply to group messages.
You can start a new discussion.
We can use it to share photos with group members.
We can use it to coordinate events via a shared calendar.
We can conduct polls to ask members how they feel about any topic.

I will be checking it regularly as a guide to what you would like to see posted on the web and blog sites.

You are our greatest resource in our quest for carbon credit justice. The combined brainpower of the group is our edge.

Please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carboncoalition and sign up. I'll see you there.