Soil Offsets Scheme to Launch 1 July 2010 - without CPRS

A senior member of Penny Wong's management team told us this morning that the National Carbon Offset Standard would be going ahead despite the shelving of the CPRS. Director of Strategic and Technical Analysis in the Offsets Office of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Kath Rowley, confirmed that the following text from the background papers for this Wednesday's Soil Carbon Workshop for Research, Industry, Policy and Market Stakeholders is an accurate statement of the Government's position:
"Provided there is sufficient progress on international climate action, the Government will legislate the CPRS in 2013. The National Carbon Offset Standard will support additional voluntary action to reduce emissions, and commences on 1 July 2010."
"Agricultural emissions including soil carbon will not be liable under the CPRS. Instead, subject to the development of robust methodologies, offsets will be able to be generated for soil carbon abatement (both sequestration and avoided emissions."