Carbon farming

The Northern and Yorke Landscape Board is delivering workshops to help upskill land managers in carbon farming and emissions reduction.

The Carbon Farming Outreach Program is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water. Please read the disclaimer for the following information. The online Carbon Farming Outreach Program training package provides information about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon farming.

Carbon farming – good for business and the environment

Carbon farming describes agricultural and land management activities that help mitigate climate change by:

reducing emissions of the main greenhouse gases
storing carbon (also called sequestering carbon) in vegetation and soil

Carbon farming can also provide other benefits - called co-benefits - including:

healthier and more productive soils, better managed and more productive livestock and pasture, and better use of water
more diversified income streams, increased income and the ability to deliver products for environmentally-conscious consumers and overseas markets
improved biodiversity and ecosystems, such as connected habitat that maintain a balance between human activities and the natural environment
stronger, more resilient communities, better quality food, more jobs, better-protected settlements and infrastructure, and better community health
direct benefits for First Nations people, including meaningful jobs on Country, independent revenue, getting back to and caring for Country and protecting cultural sites, and indirect benefits, including meeting cultural obligations, strong governance, community cohesion, self-determination, pride in community, and healthy Country.

Group	Activity
Soil	Conservation and strategic tillage; Crop and pasture management; Efficient fertiliser use
Livestock	Reduce beef and dairy cattle and sheep methane emissions; Manage piggery and dairy effluent; Grazing management
Vegetation	Afforestation; Reforestation; Agroforestry; Retain existing native vegetation
Blue carbon	Restore wetlands, saltmarsh and seagrass; Remove or modify barriers to tidal flow
First Nations ecological practices	Cultural burning, including fire management

Reducing your carbon footprint: key concepts

A carbon footprint or greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint is the annual amount of greenhouse gases emitted minus the amount of carbon stored by a farm, region or country. Reducing GHG emissions, storing more carbon or both helps reduce a farm’s or land area’s carbon footprint.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions

There are 3 types of emissions - called ‘scopes’ - that are part of a business’s total emissions but may not be evident at first sight. They are:

Scope 1 emissions: emissions from operations a business owns or controls; e.g. methane from livestock digestion and nitrous oxide from fertiliser use
Scope 2 emissions: indirect (off-farm) emissions from generating electricity, steam, heat or cooling the business buys
Scope 3 emissions: all indirect (off-farm) emissions (other than scope 2 emissions) that occur in the business’ value chain; e.g. upstream emissions from producing and transporting raw materials and downstream emissions from consumption of the farming business’ products, including waste disposal.

Insetting vs offsetting

For a farmer or land manager, attaining carbon neutrality or net zero emissions may involve:

insetting: doing carbon farming activities that reduce or avoid emissions or store carbon within their value chain, which could include their land and their supply chain
offsetting: buying and cancelling carbon credits derived from projects that reduce or avoid emissions or store carbon elsewhere.

Greenhouse gas accounts and calculators

Keeping a GHG account means quantifying emissions and carbon stored. A farmer or land manager keeping an account solely for their own purposes can choose any suitable approach. However, if they keep an account to participate in a program, they will need to use the program’s specified approach for their calculations.

Calculators that can help land managers create a greenhouse gas account include:

University of Melbourne Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre: Free to use, excel-based tool for sheep and beef, dairy, cropping, horticulture and others
Meat and Livestock Australia: Free, online tool
Australian Wine Research Institute: Free to use, excel-based tool for wineries and growers

GHG emissions are calculated in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂-e). This allows different gases to be added together into a single number. The ‘global warming potential’ (GWP) of a gas is based on its ability to trap the sun’s heat and how long it stays in the atmosphere. Using its GWP, any GHGs can be converted to a 'carbon dioxide equivalent' (CO₂-e) amount of gas.

Greenhouse gas	Global warming potential (GWPs)
Carbon dioxide	1
Methane	28
Nitrous oxide	265

* The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change periodically updates these values as understanding of the physical properties of these gases improves.

Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs)

ACCUs are also known as carbon credits. Some people think carbon farming is the same as earning ACCUs, but that’s not the case. The farmer or land manager might decide to do carbon farming activities:

to earn ACCUs they can sell to generate income
to reduce their carbon footprint
to get a lower-interest sustainability loan from a financier
to meet requirements from their supply chain
for productivity and profitability gains.

There are many other carbon credit schemes available in Australia and across the globe, with varying levels of trustworthiness and value. Helpful resources include:

LOOC-C: CSIRO tool for estimating carbon sequestration and options for certain projects offered under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme.
FullCAM: Full Carbon Accounting Model, used for modelling GHG emissions for Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme projects

Climate Active certification

Climate Active is a voluntary Australian Government program that certifies credible voluntary climate action by businesses. Farmers can use Climate Active certification in marketing their products, appealing to environmentally conscious consumers and potentially commanding price premiums.