The Soil Carbon Solution has many friends in high places. None more important than Tony Windsor MP. This week he told the press that he wanted soil carbon offsets to provide an income stream for farmers and make agriculture more sustainable. ALthough he didn't say so, it sounds as though this will be a condition of his support for the Government's Price on Carbon legislation. He said he would support the package "if it's at all possible to do something meaningful... But if it's just going to end up as some sort of bullshit political arrangement, I won't,". Soil health is something meaningful. "There would be real benefits accruing if you could turn some of the income stream into pursuing more sustainable production," he said. "Irrespective of how great the global impact would be, there would be a positive national impact, and I guess in some ways it is a bit of an insurance policy."
Professor Ross Garnaut is another supporter of the Soil Carbon Solution. He recommended last week that soil carbon sequestration be linked to the emissions trading scheme, with up to 14 per cent of the revenue available for offsets by 2020. The final Garnaut report to the government on May 31 will include a budget on how to include the carbon offsets created by soil sequestration in the emissions trading scheme.
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