Carbon Coalition Draft Activity Program 2008

The following projects are planned for implementation in 2008.

ο Carbon Farmers of Australia (Indicator-based soil carbon trading system)

ο Soil-C-Central (web community and resource-sharing site)

ο First World Congress on Soil Carbon & Climate Change (International event)


In each case we are seeking financial and other practical support from government and corporate sources as well as landholders. We also need people who can help with • strategy • construction • fundraising • lobbying • content provision • etc. (michael@carboncoalition.com.au)

MISSION:

To see the day when farmers are paid to capture and store soil carbon at rates sufficient to change land management practices and impact on 85%+ of agricultural land in Australia and the World.

NATURE OF THE TASK:

Soil carbon trading is a new paradigm. It challenges the dominant paradigm which holds that soil carbon is generically unsuitable for trade as a commodity because of its uncertainties in the face of the accounting regimes associated with the markets. It is further disqualified in the dominant school of thought by the depleted nature of Australia's soils. The battle between paradigms is political and cultural, as empires, careers, and spheres of influence are fortified by ruling paradigms. Science is not a clear-cut, objective matter. Adherents to competing paradigms see the world differently, talk past each other, define science differently. “Paradigm change cannot be justified by proof,” says Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. “The man who embraces a new paradigm at an early stage must often do so in defiance of the evidence… At the start a new candidate for paradigm may have few supporters, and on occasions the supporters' motives may be suspect… [If] the paradigm is one destined to win its fight, the number and strength of the persuasive arguments in its favour will increase.”

“The proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds… see different things when they look from the same point in the same direction… That is why a law that cannot even be demonstrated to one group of scientists may occasionally seem intuitively obvious to another… Before they can communicate fully, one group or the other must experience the conversion that we call a paradigm shift.”

Kuhn says paradigms cannot rise to dominance or survive challenges without the protection of a community that rely upon it. “A paradigm is what the members of a scientific community share, and, conversely, a scientific community consists of men who share a paradigm.” The scientific community selects and trains its inductees in seeing the world through the prism of the paradigm. These communities are self-referring via the peer review system of vetting research. And Kuhn says these communities, while rallying around a paradigm, are more closely linked by personal values.

The New Paradigm of Soil C needs a community willing to campaign for the testing* of the theory on a level playing field, under ideal conditions, by scientists who believe it can be demonstrated that Australian soils can sequester significant amounts of soil C.

*It has yet to be thoroughly investigated.
**To counter the influence of the observer on the outcome (as demonstrated by Danish physicist Niels Bohr.)


PROJECT 1
Carbon Farmers of Australia
The first soil C trading entity

Project

Carbon Farmers of Australia (CFA) is the trading arm of the Carbon Coalition. It sells Australian Soil Credits on the Voluntary Offset Market.

It was founded to get trading started while the issue of direct measurement and monitoring of exact amounts of carbon captured and stored is being resolved. It uses proxies or visual indicators of soil carbon increases based on land management change and paddock history, as used by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).

Objective

The reason CFA was established was to prove that trading was possible and to loosen a gridlocked political environment by building a sense of impetus towards a solution. Its establishment sent an echo around the stakeholder communities. It was the first soil trading program to operate in Australia, the others being direct measurement systems which are either still in development or in trials.

The system is also a low risk/low value model which can act as a means of acclimatising the farmers to the responsibilities inherent in a trading system prior to them entering the more rigorous “direct measurement/full value” model.

Description

CFA is a service for growers seeking to gain a commercial return for their soil husbandry and land management. Services include sales, marketing, aggregation of pools, advice, auditing management, and revenue maximisation.

CFA is offering soil credits for purchase on the voluntary carbon offset market. These credits are not eligible as offsets for achieving mandatory caps.

It also aims to address the CCX voluntary commodity market when the peer-reviewed data can be supplied to the CCX (pending) and Australian mandatory commodity markets when the agreed methodology for measurement is achieved (less imminent.)

AUDIT

The land management performance can be audited by either the Central West Catchment Management Authority for properties within its Catchment or by NASAA, the verification service that is used by organic producers as a third party standards monitor . (The CWCMA is committed to recruiting other CMAs to act as auditors. But in order to guarantee that we can extend the service beyond the Catchment regardless of the outcome of these efforts, we have entered into discussions with NASAA.)

Visual audit 5 land management practices:

1.No tillage cropping instead of ploughing. Sowing crops into stubble or dormant pasture avoids baring the soil and releasing CO2. Maintaining groundcover is essential to increasing soil carbon.

2. No burning of stubble or grasses. Burning releases CO2 and bares soil to erosion and loss of moisture, both of which deplete soil carbon.

3.Maximum continuous groundcover. Prevents erosion and emission of CO2, maintains soil structure, retains moisture, prevents over-heating.

4.Perenniality of pasture species. Deep rooted perennials are the most effective in generating carbon.

5.Biodiversity instead of monoculture. As soil microbial communities become more diverse and complex, they generate more carbon.

An annual visual audit should confirm the following:

1. increase groundcover and therefore biomass (vegetation and rootmass)
2. increase perenniality & therefore produce more biomass
3. increase biodiversity of plants species & wildlife in & on the soil
4. reduce soil disturbance and compaction


VALUE CALCULATION

Land is eligible where land management has changed since 1990 (the IPCC's baseline year):

o from till to no till (ploughing to no ploughing)
o from till to pasture
o from set stocking to grazing management

The sequestration value of CFA Soil Credits is set at a very conservative rate of 2 tonne CO2 per hectare (c. 0.5tC/Ha) per year (with adjustments for climate region, ie., Tablelands, Slopes, Plains) There is a mechanism for calculating the impact of climatic regions on soil carbon accumulation, based on what is known about the behaviour of carbon in these regions.

Tablelands

ο Average 2.5% Organic Carbon in top 10 cm soil profile.
ο Benchmarked annual change 0.75 tonnes Carbon/ha/yr
ο 150% base price/hectare/year

Slopes

ο Average 1.7% Organic Carbon in top 10 cm soil profile. Benchmarked annual change 0.50 tonnes Carbon/ha/yr
ο 100% base price hectare/year

Plains

ο Average 0.8% Organic Carbon in top 10 cm soil profile.
ο Benchmarked annual change 0.25 tonnes Carbon/ha/yr
ο 50% base price hectare/year

BENCHMARKS:

The categories are based on estimates published by the Australian Greenhouse Office:

ο "The review clearly indicated that the introduction of a cropping phase into uncleared land or a well-established pasture with high plant biomass, reduced soil carbon density by 10 to 30 t/ha in soils to 30 cm depth... Likely changes in soil carbon densities associated with changes in soil tillage practices are of the order of 5 to 10 t/ha when they occur..." (National Carbon Accounting System, Technical Report No. 43, January 2005)

ο Our estimates are also informed by K.Y. Chan's work on soil carbon levels under different land management methods in NSW which revealed that soil carbon levels were 2 to 2.7 times higher in pasture soil than in cropped soils, and significantly higher in minimum till than in conventional tillage soils. (Chan, K.Y. “Soil particulate organic carbon under different land use and management,” Soil Use and Management (2001) 17, 217-221.)

ο “Rebuilding soil carbon levels is a slow process which imposes limits on what can be achieved by 2010. Even so, it is suggested that a sequestration rate in the of about 2 Mt C pa is within the realms of possibility and that the sequestration by agricultural soils can make a significant contribution to the achievement of greenhouse gas emissions targets.” (Roger Swift and Jan Skjemstad, CSIRO Land and Water for the CSIRO Biosphere Working Group, “Agricultural Soils as Potential Sinks for Carbon”)

CONDITIONS:

1. A 5 year management agreement will be entered into between CFA and the Carbon Farmer.
2. Insurance covered by system of make good provisions in event of loss of carbon by fire or mismanagement.
3. If farmers can show that they are storing more carbon then they are encouraged to seek other traders to sell excess carbon stored.
4. Minor penalty repayment to withdraw from program

Timing

We launched the system at the Carbon Farming Conference in November, 2007 and are currently enlisting Carbon Farmers and expect to 'go public' in February, 2008.

Outcomes & Metrics

We aim to have 50 registered growers by June, 2008 and 250 by December, 2008

The primary objective has already been achieved. Ie., the first sales made through the system during the market testing phase led to the first meetings with soil scientists which in turn evolved into the Carbon Farming Expo & Conference which was the high point in public acceptance of carbon farming by the scientific community.

The secondary objective - preparing a group of Carbon Farmers for the discipline of the trading environment - will be measured by how many of them transition to include “direct measurement/full value” when such a system is available.

PROJECT 2

Soil-C-Central
The world's largest soil C web community and resource

Project

Soil-C-Central is a web-based, single-issue resource and community centre that is dedicated to promoting the value and power of soil carbon.

Objective

Objective 1: To build a community of scientists, farmers, extension officers, corporate executives, students, policymakers, media, etc. Network them around a core common interest: soil carbon. Arm members of the soil C community with facts and the self-belief to help them spread the word.

Objective 2: To build public awareness of the benefits of soil carbon trading:

ο CO2 sequestration
ο Farm family economies
ο Restoration of farm landscapes

Objective 3: To create a sense of inevitability and anticipation around soil carbon as a Climate Change solution to generate the political will to remove barriers to the trade.

Description

A soil C “webtropolis”: an online city with districts, neighbourhoods, community facilities and services: an online library, resource centre, news service and meeting place for everyone interested in soil carbon.

Planned to meet the needs of individuals with diverse reasons for being involved.

Needs:

Location - A place to hang out for those engaged in the new soil C paradigm.

Education - Basic information for the seeker, reporter, educator, generalist. Specialist infomation for the maven and the power user. Scalable pathways to pursue information into the vaults or wherever it leads.

Knowledge - The power of fresh information. A new paradigm must win the argument in the open arena of peer-reviewed science.

Identity - Validation of the heretical beliefs of the adherent to a new paradigm. Provides members with sense of identity and affirmation of their beliefs

Community - Networks members so they can learn from each other. Empowers members to provide leadership in their own communities.

Trade - A place where business can be transacted, contacts made, and services purchased.

Invention - Geeks fostering the next generation of ideas or finding new ways of putting the old ones to the sword.

Innovation - Promotes Carbon Farming as a new way of agriculture.

Climate Change - Provides Leadership Role for Agriculture in Climate Change issue.


Villages will spring up among special interest groups who will start Online Groups and personal Blogs to form a niche meeting place for their sub-group, like clubs at university.

Timing

This project will be built in stages, to accommodate the flow of income:

Stage 1: Build a “Display Village”*

Home Page (“Central Station”)
Resource Area (“Library”) - Based on existing functions
Newsletter (“News Media”) - Based on existing functions

Stage 2: Complete construction

Use “Display Village” to solicit support for completion of construction from sponsors (NAB, Landmark, Country Energy, etc.)

Stage 3: Living Community

Financed by:

Membership fees
Sponsorship
Advertising


There are three categories of cost:

1. Website construction & maintenance
Build basic site
Renovations and extensions as required

2. Content development and production (ongoing)
Editorial
Locating content, compiling archive, scientific papers, etc.
Producing news bulletins
Posting slide shows, podcasts, etc.

3. Administration
Moderator
Manage discussion groups
Help Desk
Handle user problems

Outcomes & Metrics

The standard metrics for websites include hits, page impressions, time spent, unique visitors, return visits, registrations, sales, memberships, comments left, contribution to strings, city of origin, etc.

We will also be able to track usage of resources, ie. which information is most useful.

Online petitions, surveys and plebiscites can also be used to gather data.

We will judge success on raw visits, memberships, attendance at webcasts, and usage of resources.

We will also judge success by how many suburbs are established.

Ultimately the power of the community will be measured by how quickly we achieve our Mission.


PROJECT 3

World Congress on Soil Carbon & Climate Change


Project

A gathering of the world's top scientists, farmers and soil C enthusiasts to network their knowledge and pool resources.

Objective

Harness the best minds to solve the problem everyone is working on separately: measurement and monitoring.

Description

Digital Age gathering
World's best soil carbon scientists and carbon farmers
USA, Australia, NZ, India, China, Sth Africa, Brazil, Argentina
Web and satellite links
A month of events
Special areas: eg. measurement, cropping, etc
Culminating in a big gathering in Australia or China or USA for face2face

Timing

October 2008 - International Year of Planet Earth

Outcomes & Metrics

Energise the global soil C community.
Put soil carbon on the world map
Get serious consideration of the Soil C Solution