Dr. Karl Richards:

Internationally this is still being developed. That is why the EU is producing the communication on carbon farming later this year. Some countries such as New Zealand have made announcements about agriculture, land use, carbon farming and emissions trading within the agricultural sector. Australia has some certified carbon schemes, but the monitoring, reporting and verification for this must be considered. If farmers can make a lot of money from farming carbon, that is a decision they are likely to make, but at the moment we do not know what the emissions from those soils are, so we do not know how much carbon they will save. If they are paid now for ten tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year and our research later says that it is only one tonne, will they have to repay that to the carbon market and will they have to repay it at a future carbon price? They may have to pay a lot more. There are huge uncertainties but it is certainly an area, not just in terms of carbon but in terms of ecosystem services and biodiversity, that is of interest to farmers. Much of the money farmers are currently paid is to produce food. That is the metric they are performing to. If there are payments for other environmental goods and services, they will start to look at those as business opportunities for them and their farm.