Update for our previous workshop participants

It has been a while since over 1,500 agricultural and Indigenous land managers participated in our ‘Profiting from Climate Change’ course and a lot of exciting things have happened during that time! The Government recently passed something called the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) which is the first of its type in the world. The CFI allows farmers and land managers to generate carbon credits on their land that are saleable on both the domestic and international market. This piece of legislation along with the Government’s proposed Clean Energy Future plan will mean a substantial shift in how carbon is viewed across the Australian landscape. This is creating significant opportunities for landowners to engage in activities that generate credits on their land so we thought it timely to post an update to fill in our previous workshop participants on what’s been happening in this space and to touch base on some of the opportunities that may be present.

What does the carbon tax mean for small business owners?

Written by: Kristine Dewar

While large emitters and the general public have been vocal about their views on the predicted impacts of the recently released carbon tax, the impacts for Australia’s 1.9 million small businesses remain uncertain.

Many commentators have predicted that the cost of material inputs will rise as big polluters pass on the carbon tax; however, the magnitude of these price increases has not been quantified. Will the cost of material inputs increase by 3 or 4 cents, or 3 or 4 dollars? The Government has not released any detailed modelling showing the impact that the carbon tax will have on small business. Given that the impacts will differ between sectors, and as small businesses are so diverse, there is no one-size-fits-all model that can determine the carbon tax impact on the cost of materials.

Carbon House's Andrew Wilson on Sky News Business

Andrew Wilson, Carbon Markets Analyst with Carbon House, was interviewed for 'Market Day' on Sky News Business on Thursday 26 May. Andrew was asked about his take on the current carbon tax debate, the ways businesses can address this issue, and the opportunities that it presents. Watch the video:

Media Release: Carbon Market Represents Big Opportunity for Indigenous Communities

The rapidly developing area of climate change and carbon policy in Australia is opening up new opportunities for Indigenous landholders and communities. The introduction of a carbon tax in Australia means that the market for carbon offsets could be worth around $550 million or more per year in 2013 according to a recent analysis by Brisbane based projects, advisory and training firm Carbon House. And there is strong interest from Australian companies in the concept of ‘Indigenous Carbon’.

Carbon opportunities for Australian farmers

Written by: Kristine Dewar

The carbon market is developing at a rapid pace within Australia and internationally. Within Australia, a voluntary carbon market is already flourishing, however, this market relies predominantly upon carbon credits that are generated overseas and are matched with Australian businesses seeking to voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint. Although the Australian carbon market is operating largely on a voluntary basis, regulatory carbon markets already exist in the European Union and New Zealand. Indeed, the global carbon market is currently worth over $100 billion per year. The introduction of a national regulatory market within Australia such as the currently proposed Carbon Tax would see explosive growth in the market for domestic carbon offsets as liable corporations look to reduce their carbon footprints.

At the same time, farmers throughout Australia are facing increased pressure from the impacts of climate change manifesting themselves as droughts, floods and an increase in extreme weather events. These forces are increasingly impacting on the profitability of farming operations and causing landholders to seek ways to diversify and increase the resilience of income streams. These impacts are set to continue and intensify into the future with modelling predicting that climate change will have a particularly significant impact on the Australian rural sector.

A glimpse of the future Australian carbon offset market

Written by: Andrew Wilson

While the finer details of the government’s plan to introduce a fixed carbon price from July 2012 remain a mystery, the release of The Garnaut Review’s Sixth Update Paper last week offers some insight into what the future Australian market for carbon offsets may look like.

Professor Garnaut’s Sixth update provides multiple recommendations on how to best price carbon in the Australian economy. Whilst topics such as the linking of compensation to income tax cuts and pension increases are sure to generate the bulk of media and political interest, this update also contains important recommendations on how carbon offsets may interact with a fixed carbon price in Australia. Professor Garnaut advocates the inclusion of an offset program in the design of any carbon pricing mechanism in order to encourage abatement activity in multiple industry sectors - particularly those not covered by the carbon pricing scheme such as agriculture. He also advocates that in order to address concerns about budget neutrality and undermining the abatement effort in other sectors, caps need to be placed on the quantity of offsets able to be purchased by liable entities to meet their responsibilities.