NZ trading scheme within 18 months

The Convenors last week toured New Zealand meeting scientists, government officials and farmers. The NZ Government has declared that it will have a soil carbon trading system by July 2009. The Government put out a Tender for a Voluntary Carbon System in December, 2007. The Carbon Coalition submitted a response to the Tender (see below).

The scientific research agency which told us it was 99% sure it would win the Tender to design the NZ trading system, is in the curious position of claiming to be equipped to design a system for trading increases in soil carbon while it's official position is that NZ soils cannot sequester more carbon: "Most New Zealand pastures are well stocked with soil carbon and there is little scope for increases-indeed there is evidence that soil carbon can decline if already fertile pastures receive more fertiliser. In general however, fertiliser additions enhance plant residue inputs and decomposition, so cycling of carbon increases, but soil carbon levels remain at a steady state. This is why we cannot use soils to store more carbon to offset methane and nitrous oxide emissions from New Zealand farms."



Dr Kevin Tate is NZ's most senior soil scientist. We discussed the collaborative farmer/scientist model of scientific research which would involve educating farmers to lab assistant level so they can be more disciplined in taking measurements, and giving scientists a grounding in on-farm realities to assist them in avoiding poorly-designed studies.


VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
SOIL CARBON MANAGEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

Capabilities Statement
(Including CVs)

The Carbon Coalition NZ Soil C Team has the Capabilities and Credentials needed to achieve the Government’s objective in this exercise:

To develop a cost-effective and practical system that allows those undertaking cropland management and grazing land management activities to estimate/measure soil carbon changes on their land and sell voluntary carbon market offsets.

Capabilities

The Government will require a consultancy that has five fundamental capabilities:

1. KNOWLEDGE of the scientific, marketplace, and regulatory realities and possibilities that define the global soil C trading opportunity for New Zealand;

2. INSIGHTS from dealing with scientists and farmers and corporate buyers of soil C offsets for long enough to understand their issues;

3. CONNECTIONS with the key players in the emerging market for soil C offsets in this region and overseas;

4. AWARENESS of the contribution science can make (its enabling effect) and its limitations (its disabling effect); and

5. EXPERIENCE with designing and running voluntary soil C trading schemes.

These Five Capabilities point to one key factor on which the success hinges: Creative Insight, based on understanding all aspects of the creation of markets for soil C.

There are 18 reasons why the Carbon Coalition NZ Soil C Team has this level of Understanding:

1. Practical experience: we have been actively campaigning for creation of the market for soil C since February 2006, preparing position papers and presentations for political, industry and corporate decision-makers;

2. Grassroots insights: we have addressed more than 70 gatherings of landholders on the soil carbon issue and fielded hundreds of emails and and telephone calls;

3. “Market making”: we have designed a voluntary market system based on the Chicago Climate Exchange model and are engaged in building our own voluntary market standard for submission to the Voluntary Carbon Standard in June 2008;

4. Pioneering change agents: we were the first organization to trade soil C units in Australia and have been trading in a trial system since February 2007;

5. Global scientific contacts: we are in regular contact with the world’s most eminent scientists and agricultural economists working in the soil C field; (with Prof. Lal at Ohio State U, Columbus OH)

6. Global market contacts: we secured the first order for 25,000 acres of Australian farm soil carbon from the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) in October, 2006; we are in regular contact with key personnel in the only active exchange in the world trading in soil C; (Left: Mike Walsh, svp, CCX Chicago.)

7. Building bridges: we have been engaged with Australia’s most senior soil C scientists for more than 12 months in a series of “Soil Science Summits” to build understanding and remove obstacles to trading;

8. Knowledge base: we have an extensive library of literature – both scientific and reportage - focussed soley on issues affecting soil C trading;

9. Network resources: we communicate daily with a growing network of scientists, extension officers, and farmers and graziers, sharing our knowledge between us;

10. Serving industry: we are currently building Soil-C-Central, the world’s largest database and online community focussed on soil C production and trading;

11. Real world involvement: we are registered, as farmers, as part of the Greenhouse Challenge Plus, an emissions reduction scheme run by the Australian Greenhouse Office – the first graziers to do so – in order to experience the full force of “net-net” carbon accounting;

12. Removing blockages: we were the first to detect the flaws in the scientific method used by the CRC for Carbon Accounting to measure the sequestration capacity of Australian soils;

13. Building community: we staged the worlds first Carbon Farming Expo & Conference on 16th-17th November, 2007 in Mudgee, NSW, with scientists, traders, and farmers speaking to an audience from every State in Australia and New Zealand;

14. Insider information: we have inside knowledge of the three trading operations emerging in Australia in the past 12-18 months and we are in touch with their promoters;

15. Credibility with farmers: landholders who control more than 2 million hectares have chosen Carbon Farmers of Australia, the non-profit trading arm of the Carbon Coalition to act as their representatives/aggregators for soil C trading; (Below: winners of the ‘Carbon Cocky of the Year’ Awards at Carbon Farming Expo & Conference, 2007);

16. Marketing expertise: we have more than 30 years experience as marketing consultants, working with major brands such as Toyota, Xerox, American Express, Australia Post, and Macquarie Bank;

17. Growers’ advantage: we have launched the “CarbonCredited™” scheme for producers who enter into recognised emissions-reduction programs, starting with an aggregated wool pool aimed to meet demand from retailers in Europe;

18. Intellectual resources: we have, as part of the Carbon Coalition NZ Soil C team, one of world’s leading soil scientists with research expertise in the area of applying advance technology to the function of “Measurement, Monitoring, & Verification” ; and

19. Acknowledged expertise: we assisted three political parties to develop their soil carbon policies for elections in Australia in 2007: the federal ALP (the new Commonwealth Government), the federal Democrats, and the NSW Nationals.