The Federal Government has released a public consultation paper on the key regulations of the planned Carbon Farming Initiative  (CFI).

 

Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change Mark Dreyfus said the regulations are designed to streamline the application process for projects under the CFI, while ensuring there are no unintended consequences for communities and the environment of greenhouse gas abatement projects.

 

“These regulations will set out types of activities which might be included in the CFI, as well as list those activities that will be ineligible under the scheme because of the adverse impact they may have on communities or other areas of the environment”, Mr Dreyfus said.

 

The list of eligible and ineligible activities under the CFI are expected to grow over time as more activities are assessed.  Examples of activities likely to be listed in the regulations were provided to the Senate last week.

 

The preliminary list of activities that will be excluded from the scheme include: 

  • Establishing forests as part of a Managed Investment Scheme. The market for agricultural land could be distorted through the additive effects of up-front tax incentives and carbon revenue for commercial (harvest) plantings.
  • Establishing vegetation on land cleared of native vegetation since 1 July 2007. This will remove the risk of a perverse incentive to clear native vegetation in order to establish a carbon forest.
  • Establishing a known weed species. This will remove the risk that invasive species will be part of carbon projects.
  • Establishing forest in conditions where it would risk impacts on the availability of water. This will remove the risk that carbon plantings will affect environmental flows or other water users.

 

The CFI scheme, which aims to financially reward farmers and landerholders for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, was introduced to Parliament in March. The Government describes it as a ‘voluntary scheme that enables particpants to receive carbon credits for saving or storing greenhouse gases’.

 

The consultation paper can be downloaded here