Prepared by the Carbon Coalition, a member of the Soil Carbon Alliance.
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CONTENTS
Why a National Strategy?
Soil Carbon Solution
Background
Benefits
Barriers to trade
National Soil Carbon Strategy
Target; 85% in 5 years
Target audience
Carbon Markets
Soil Carbon Trading Systems
Mandatory or Compliance Market
Voluntary Market
Key Barrier #1
Key Barrier #2
Strategy
Stage 1: Barriers
Removal of Stage 1 Barriers
National Soil Carbon Database
Soil Carbon Data Roundup
Commission of Scientists
Australian Voluntary Carbon Market Standard
Stage 2: Barriers
Removal of Stage 2 Barriers
National Soil Carbon Baselining Program
Appendix 1: What is Soil Carbon and why is it important
Appendix 2: Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX))
Appendix 3: “Official” Australian Measurement Methodology
Appendix 4: The Soil Carbon Alliance
Appendix 5: World food crisis needs Carbon Farmers
Appendix 56 Adoption of new agricultural practices
Why a National Strategy?
The objective for a National Soil Carbon Strategy is to give a coherent shape to the diverse and disconnected activities that various organisations, groups and individuals are pursuing with a view to seeing the day soil carbon is traded. This strategy should locate each initiative in context of the broader objective of those committed to the Soil Carbon Solution
Soil Carbon Solution
The Soil Carbon Solution relies on the process of Photosynthesis to separate the Carbon and Oxygen molecules, release the Oxygen and use the Carbon to make plant tissue. Only Photosynthesis can do this. Vegetation and algae have this unique capability. And only agricultural soils have the capacity to make a dramatic absorption of CO2e. They cover 60% of the terrestrial surface of Earth. If each of the 5.5 billion hectares sequestered half a tonne of carbon in a year, the farmers of the world can remove more than 10 Gigatonnes of Greenhouse Gases from the Atmosphere.
The world’s annual excess emissions amount to 8 Gigtonnes.
We need the Soil Carbon Solution because there is already enough Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere to push the Planet through the 2 degrees that science warns could be the brink of climate crisis.
• Buys time: The world’s foremost soil carbon expert, Dr Rattan Lal, believes soil carbon can act as ‘a bridge to the future’ because it ‘buys us time’ while other solutions reach critical mass. It is widely reported that the main emissions-avoiding technologies being developed – including solar, wind, and nuclear power, as well as clean coal systems – will need more than 20 years to be fully deployed.
• 10 Years: No technology solution will be deployed in time to ‘do something serious about Climate Change’ within the 10 years given to us by Sir Nicholas Stern 18 months ago.
• Soils ready: Forests could not be planted and reach maximum sequestration rate in the time allowed. Only soils are fully deployed and ready.
• Simple change: They require only a change in land management to start the process of massive sequestration across 450 million hectares of agricultural land in Australia and 5.5 billion hectares around the world. Each hectare need only capture and hold a small amount of carbon each year to make a significant reduction in atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Background
• History: Australia has lost around 50% of its topsoil and 75% of its soil organic matter since 1788 when European methods of agriculture landed on our shores for the first time. The forests were cleared and the vast grassy plains were occupied. The farming community had seen nothing like Australian droughts in their homeland and so applied too much pressure on pasture grasses, baring the soil by overgrazing, making it available to wind and water erosion. They ploughed and burnt stubble. And they did not, as a rule, compost or return to the soil some of the organic matter they were ‘mining’.
.• Science: The soil scientists understandably characterised the Australian situation as one of universal losses due to inappropriate management of already fragile soils. The common view is that Australia’s soils are too fragile and over-exploited to be able to act as a meaningful carbon sink. Australia’s soils are unique in this way, according to the dominant paradigm.
• Climate: Therefore it was not unexpected that the National Carbon Accounting Scheme (NCAS), which was created to measure and record Australia’s greenhouse gas inventory, should reflect this view. To estimate Australia’s emissions, all available soil carbon data was assembled and where in was not available, soil tests were commissioned. The available data was all at least 20 years old. But much had changed in 20 years. Those compiling did not know that the dominant carbon-depleting farming systems were being challenged by new methods which featured minimal disturbance of the soil.
• Science lag: The same knowledge gap led to conservation techniques being left out of the studies to fill the geographic gaps in the data sets. The science was also under-resourced. The politics lagged the practice. The scientists complained in their reports was the lack of resources and time to complete a proper analysis.
• Data: The data sets therefore had gaps in the coverage of management methods. However this was not made known until 2007, when the Carbon Coalition came upon the evidence while tracing the common view of Australian soils as too ancient and degraded to sequester much carbon. Subsequently revealed as a myth, it has the status of a truism, something ‘everybody knows’.
• Gaps: The Department of Climate Change, which replaced the Australian Greenhouse Office, commissioned work to fill the gaps. But the process of becoming a peer-reviewed article (to enter the realms of scientific reality) from the start of a soil carbon measurement trial is approximately 5 years. Such trials started in 2007. The results can be expected in 2012, too late for inclusion in the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010 and possibly 2012 as well.
• Unique: The claim that Australia’s soils are unique and therefore unable to sequester carbon is not unique in itself. New Zealanders have been convinced by their scientists that their soils are unique and cannot sequester carbon. The reasons given are different for either side of the Tasman. In Australia, it is because the soils are too degraded and depleted. In New Zealand the soils are too laden with carbon: saturated.
Benefits
Soil carbon has many other benefits directly related to soil health and productivity.
High soil carbon levels are associated with:
• improved soil structure
• reduced hard-panning
• reduced erosion
• improved waterholding capacity
• reduced evaporation
• reduced hydrological recharge
• reduced salination (salt scalding)
• reduced high velocity runoff and silting of waterways
• improved fertility
• inceases in available Nirtrogen and Phosphorous
• increased biodiversity and species density above and below ground, and
• reduced input needs.
Drought resistance: Soil carbon also acts like a buffer against drought because it enables the landscape to hold water longer and make better use of it as it passes through the landscape, making greater use of effective rainfall.
It also insulates against anticipated increasing temperatures.
Barriers to trade
The barriers to trade in soil carbon that are commonly quoted, are:
1. No peer-reviewed data available as evidence of Australian soils’ capability.
2. Common belief among scientists that soil carbon is ‘hard to measure’.
3. Additionality provisions of Kyoto Protocol which state that an action must be taken primarily for the purposes of sequestration.
4. Permanence provisions of Kyoto, which refers to the so-called “100 Year Rule”.
5. Lack of an agreed methodology for measurement, monitoring and verification.
6. The cost of baselining and regular updates of soil carbon scores.
The most important barriers to soil carbon trading are:
a.) the science is lagging the politics;
b.) ignorance of the issues at all levels;
c.) fear of the soil solution; and
c.) lack of a sense of urgency.
Data lagging:
The main argument against trading is a lack of data to populate the models needed for measuring soil carbon. The agricultural science establishment has disinvested in soil carbon for more than a decade.
Ignorance: There is widespread ignorance of Climate Change, although everyone has an opinion. There is poor understanding of the issues coming up in the near future among media, politicians, policy development officers, and consumers. Even scientists and agronomists remain in the dark about it.
Fear of soils solution: There appears to be an irrational fear of trading in soil carbon, evidenced by the emotionally-charged language used to describe those promoting the concept.
No sense of urgency: A sense of urgency is not evidenced anywhere in the community. Kyoto administrators seem more interested in efficient administration than about achieving the goal. Science proceeds at a ‘business as usual’ pace. It is as though no crisis of climate existed.
National Soil Carbon Strategy
There are several reasons for setting down a National Soil Carbon Strategy for Australia: The importance of the Soil Carbon Solution to the community, the nation and the world, and the urgency of the problem soil carbon can address.
The National Soil Carbon Strategy is predicated on the single-minded objective of giving landholders the incentive to grow as much soil carbon as possible in the shortest time possible. It is not a strategy seeking more research and knowledge. Action is the priority.
Target; 85% in 5 years
85% Australia’s agricultural soils managed to sequester carbon at the highest level possible by 2015.
The Rationale for this figure is as follows: In 2007, Sir Nicholas Stern told us we had until 2017 to do something serious about Global Warming. If we achieve the Target we will have only two years of full sequestration capability, not enough to deliver a dramatic impact inside the Stern Decade.
Target audience:
Farmers are:
• opportunistic
• market-driven
• proud of their output
• proud of their knowledge of farming
• conservative
• slow to adopt new ideas from outside
• inventive and innovators
• suspicious
• trust themselves and a few farmers they admire.
These characteristics must be considered when selecting the most effective behaviour change approach for activating agricultural soils for carbon sequestration.
The options are:
• Legislation – forcing farmers to adopt land management practices.
• Incentive payments – paying farmers a fixed amount for environmental services.
• Carbon trading – allowing farmers to sell the tonnages of carbon they sequester in soils and vegetation
The market mechanism is favoured as most efficient for several reasons:
• It simplifies the task of engaging and organizing landholders.
• It gives farmers maximum control and self-dignity.
• It requires of them the least amount of trust in Government.
Carbon Markets
We believe in the need for market-based incentives for farmers to change management techniques. The incentive must be as attractive as is necessary to achieve our aims:
1. Change in behaviour;
2. Engaging a large number of landholders;
3. In a short period of time.
Soil Carbon Trading Systems
• Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets – Measurement of soil carbon levels by scientific methods (eg. soil sample analysis, statistical modelling) that most closely approximates an accurate estimation of the amount, at a low level of uncertainty.
• Indicator/Discounted Value Offsets – Estimation of soil carbon levels by visual indicators (eg. groundcover, no-till cropping) that scientists agree are associated with increasing levels of carbon in soil. The amounts of carbon sequestered are discounted heavily to allow for the uncertainty factor.
The highest level of market incentive is available for growing soil carbon are Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets. These can attract the open carbon offset market price, traded at the maximum value.
A level of incentive below that of Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets is Indicator/Discounted Value Offsets. These are discounted to allow for the reduced level of certainty when compared to a direct measurement method.
Carbon Markets
• Mandatory or Compliance Market – “Credits” or Offsets that can be offered to organisations needing to offset emissions to meet their targets in a “Cap & Trade” system (ie. pay someone who has sequestered carbon or caused emissions to be avoided). This market operates according to the principles established by the Kyoto Protocols.
• Voluntary Market – Individuals and organizations who wish to contribute voluntarily to the Climate Change effort by purchasing offsets. However these offsets cannot to used to meet a “Cap &* Trade” target. Voluntary markets are not regulated, but standards exist for best practice.
Key Barrier #1 – Rate of change to carbon farming
The rate of adoption of Carbon Farming by landholders will determine how useful the Soil Carbon Solution is as a source of Climate Change mitigation. The greatest motivation is significant additional income during the early years
as Emissions Trading is introduced. (See Appendix 5.)
The Bell Curve charts the take-up of new waysby primary producers if incentive is only better productivity.
For the Bell Curve to become a Spike (ie. to have rapid take-up by producers), the incentive needs to be highly attractive.Key Barrier #2 – Measurement methodologyThe issues of Direct Measurement, Monitoring and Verification of carbon levels in agricultural soils are yet to be resolved to the satisfaction of the Commonwealth Government and its scientific advisers. No single methodology for estimating the amount of carbon contained in a volume of soil has consensus support among scientists.
Strategy
The strategy proposed is a progression to Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets in the following stages:
Stage 1: Remove barriers to Indicator/Discounted Value Offsets market.
Stage 2: Launch Indicator/Discounted Value Offsets Market
Stage 3: Remove barriers to Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets market.
Stage 4: Launch Direct Measurement/Full Value Offsets market.
Method: We shall remove barriers systematically by studying them to discover solutions.
Stage 1: Barriers
A Voluntary Market System can operate with the following:
Data: soil carbon scores from a locality, district and climate zone based on land management techniques.
Recommendation: a commission of scientists to provide a recommended set of soil carbon levels for a defined set of land management practices at particular locations.
Standard: The protocols and practices that dictate the fundamental processes that are required for purchasers to feel confident that their interests are protected and their objectives are acheved.
Recommendation: Develop the Australian Voluntary Soil Carbon Standard (already at draft stage, in development by organics industry standards authority NAASA)
Removal of Stage 1 Barriers:
1. Establish the National Soil Carbon Database
• A central warehouse of all soil carbon data in Australia.
• Accessible by anyone wanting to use the data.
• Resource for populating carbon calculators with localized soil carbon data.
• Start with “Soil Carbon Data Roundup” – gain access to all data held by government and private laboratories, research institutions, and anyone who holds data.
2. Commission of Scientists
• Review data available.
• Meet to develop a recommended set of soil carbon levels for a defined set of land management practices at particular locations.
3. Establish Australian Voluntary Carbon Market Standard
Stage 2: Barriers
A Mandatory Market System can operate with the following:
• Measurement Methodology: a method of estimating amounts of carbon in a defined volume of soil.
• Consensus on Methodology: agreement among buyers and regulators that the system is sufficiently accurate as to allow confidence in levels of uncertainty and risk management.
• Cost of Measurment: cost of ‘baseline’ carbon scoring for individual landholder is described as “high” by scientists.
Removal of Stage 2 Barriers:
1. National Soil Carbon Baselining Program
• Option: The Commonwealth Government can take on task of baselining all properties as part of a Natural Resource Management program.
• Cost of baselining reduced by national tender process, open to international suppliers.
• Offset NRM costs and drive restoration programs.
• Option: Landholders pay low price negotiated by Government.
2. Commission of scientists recommend a baselining methodology.
• Review available technologies and methodologies.
• Recommend methodology.
3. Commonwealth Government endorse decision.
4. Launch Market in Australia
“Onwards!”
The Carbon Coalition has only one gear: forward.
And only one strategy: just do it.
Your response is requested.
DRAFT FOR COMMENT
SEND COMMENTS TO
Louisa@carboncoalition.com.au
(02) 6374 0329
Appendix 1: What is Soil Carbon and why is it important?
Soil Carbon is that part of the soil that is or has been alive. It is present in litter, roots, insect life, microbes, carbohydrates, fungi, acids and humus. It is also found in soils as carbohydrates, fats, waxes, alkanes, peptides, amino acids, proteins, lipids and organic acids.
Soil carbon is produced by biological activity of microbes and fungi, stimulated by the action of roots of plants as they push down through the soil, retreating when the foliage above ground is grazed or harvested, then pushing down through the soil again as the foliage regrows. (There is also mineralised Carbon in the soil which is not organic.)
Soil carbon is created when CO2 is absorbed by vegetation, the Oxygen is released and the Carbon is used to make living tissue, such as vegetation, animals that eat vegetation, and humans that can eat both. Some of the retained Carbon returns to the atmosphere as CO2 from respiration (eg. plants ‘breathe out’ CO2 at night). Some of the retained Carbon returns to the atmosphere as CH4 or Methane from the rotting of dead vegetation. But much of the Carbon taken in by the plant enters the top layer of the soil and is held there as humus, and some of it is carried further down to deeper layers of the soil where it can be held for hundreds of years.
Depending on what is grown in the soil and how the soil is managed, it can store large amounts of Carbon or it can release large amounts of Greenhouse gases. It is the landholder who decides what the soils contribute to Climate Change.
Soil Carbon Dynamics
Beneath the surface of the soil there are communities of bacterial, fungi, insects, and other microbial life forms. There are highways and byways and millions of kilometers of root fibre beneath every hectare of plants. The drama of this community is best seen in the celebration of life that takes place when the roots of perennial grasses respond to grazing. When a plant’s foliage is grazed or harvested, the roots die back, leaving the rotting remains of roots to provide food for the microbial community. A party ensues. Then – if the plant is given time to recover from the graze – the roots stretch out their piercing fingers and push new pathways down into the deep levels of the soil.
They aerate the soil and make it better able to hold water. They interact with the old rootmass and stimulate a feeding and breeding frenzy among fungi and other microbes. This complex celebration creates soil carbon.
Soil’s Capacity As A Sink
Soil is the largest carbon ‘sink’ over which we have control: "Soil organic carbon is the largest reservoir in interaction with the atmosphere,” says the FAO (United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation). Vegetation holds 650 gigatonnes, the Atmosphere 750 gigatonnes, and Soil holds 1500 gigatonnes. Only the ocean holds more: 36,000 gigatonnes.
Carbon Farming Basics
Carbon Farming is not a new practice. It is a new way to describe a collection of techniques that can increase soil organic carbon in agricultural land.
These techniques include: no-till cropping, grazing management, mulching, pasture cropping, biological farming (composting, compost teas), cover cropping, green cover all year round, Biodynamics, paramagnetic rock dust, nitrohumis (treated human biosolids), natural fertilizers… any technique that increases soil carbon is acceptable.
Appendix 2: Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX)
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is the world’s first voluntary, legally-binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases (GHGs), with offset projects worldwide. CCX employs independent verification and has been tradingsince 2003. CCX Members that cannot reducetheir own emissions can purchase credits from those who make extra emission cuts or from verified offset projects.CCX issues tradable Carbon Financial Instrument (CFI) contracts to owners or aggregators of eligible projects that include: agricultural and rangeland soil carbon.
Basic CCX Specifications for Soil Carbon Management Offset for Conservation Tillage include:
• Minimum five year contractual commitment to continuous no-till or striptill (conservation tillage) on enrolled acres.
• Tillage practice must leave at least two-thirds of the soil surface undisturbed and at least two-thirds of the residue remaining on the field surface.
CCX CFI contracts are issued for conservation tillage at a rate between
0.2 and 0.6 metric tons CO2 per acre per year. Prices of CO2e have ranged from US$2.tonne-US$7/tonne since the program began.
Carbon sequestration projects must be enrolled through a CCX-registered
Offset Aggregator.
All projects subject to independent verification.
CCX has developed simple, standardized rules for issuing credits for agricultural carbon emission reductions and soil sequestration.
Eligible projects include:
• Continuous no-till and strip-till cropping
• Grass planting
• Tree planting
• Improved rangeland management
Appendix 3: “Official” Australian Measurement Methodology
The Australian Greenhouse Office endorsed the following publication as a methodology for measuring soil carbon:
“Monitoring Soil Change Principles and practices for Australian Conditions”, by Neil McKenzie, Brent Henderson and Warwick McDonald, Technical Report 18/02, May 2002, CSIRO Land & Water, CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences,National Land and Water Resources Audit
“The purpose of this report is to present the principles and practice of soil
monitoring in a form that allows interested parties to develop monitoring programs that are scientifically defensible and capable of generating social, environmental and economic benefits. The emphasis is on monitoring that involves repeated measurements at a set of well-selected sites. Recommended directions for monitoring soil change are presented.
Appendix 4: The Soil Carbon Alliance
The Carbon Coalition has joined forces with organics industry peak body, the Organic Federation of Australia (OFA), and environmental research and marketing specialists, the Centre for Organic Resource & Enterprise (CORE), to propose that a Soil Carbon Alliance be formed.
This Alliance offers organizations and individuals the benefit of ‘weight’ in the Climate Change and Soil Carbon debate. Membership of a focussed, action-oriented alliance broad enough to support and add credence to any activity that is contributing to the adoption of the Soil Carbon Solution will add weight to our arguments..
The Soil Carbon Alliance supports the outreach, research and lobbing work of the Carbon Coalition and will be funded by membership, donations, sponsorships, grants, partnerships and joint-ventures.
Members will have access to soil carbon consultancy services, education, information, and networking.
Together we make each other stronger.
Membership enquiries: 02 6374 0329
Appendix 5: World food crisis needs Carbon Farmers
The world food crisis has seen the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) call for farmers to have access to soil carbon trading to help increase food production and avoid the forced displacement of large populations in search of food. The FAO crisis meeting in Rome earlier this month urged governments to help the world's farmers to participate in financial mechanisms to support climate change adaptation.* The High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, convened by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 3-5 June, 2008 has called the international community to increase the resilience of world's food systems to climate change. On climate change, the conference Declaration said: "It is essential to address question of how to increase the resilience of present food production systems to challenges posed by climate change... We urge governments to assign appropriate priority to the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors, in order to create opportunities to enable the world's smallholder farmers and fishers, including indigenous people, in particular vulnerable areas, to participate in, and benefit from financial mechanisms and investment flows to support climate change adaptation, mitigation and technology development, transfer and dissemination. We support the establishment of agricultural systems and sustainable management practices that positively contribute to the mitigation of climate change and ecological balance."
Appendix 6: Adoption of new agricultural practices
In 1943, Bryce Ryan and Neil C. Cross from Iowa State College plotted farmers adoption of a new hybrid corn seed. The bell curve they observed has since become known as the classic adoption curve for new products and services
The technology adoption lifecycle model describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups.
The profiles of each adoption group were originally specified by the North Central Rural Sociology Committee, Subcommittee for the Study of the Diffusion of Farm Practices.
The report summarised the categories as:
* innovators - had larger farms, were more educated, more prosperous and more risk-oriented
* early adopters - younger, more educated, tended to be community leaders
* early majority - more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influence to neighbours
* late majority - older, less educated, fairly conservative and less socially active
* laggards - very conservative, smalls farms and capital, oldest and least educated
