THE Victorian and NSW governments have inflicted an embarrassing blow to the commonwealth government's policy on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, by backing research that supports the federal opposition's campaign to allow farmers to claim and trade carbon credits.
The report commissioned by the two state governments, and obtained by The Australian Financial Review, argues that farmers should have access to a voluntary carbon trading system whilst not being formally covered under the federal government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
"Agriculture offers substantial opportunities to lower the costs of meeting Australia's [greenhouse gas] policy and international engagement objectives," the report says.
A voluntary system, the ACIL Tasman report argues, could allow farmers to generate credits from reducing emissions, which they could then sell through a process similar to the Chicago Climate Exchange in the United States.
"It's inexplicable that the government continues to exclude green carbon offsets or soil carbon offsets from its model. It's time to set up a voluntary scheme now," environment spokesman Greg Hunt said.
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