In order to encourage enterprises, families and landowners to actively reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon reserves, the Australian federal government proposes to purchase carbon sink products with the lowest cost from a wide range of sources. At the same time, Australia's climate change strategy also identified eight emission reduction measures, including investing in new technologies and helping the land and agricultural sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to promote the implementation of the above measures, according to the Carbon Credit (Carbon Agriculture Initiative) Act of 20 1 1, Australia established the EmissionsReductionFund (ERF) in 20 15, and then established the climatesolutionfund(CSF) on this basis. It is used to support various emission reduction projects carried out by landowners, communities and enterprises, and promote the government to achieve the goal of "reducing emissions by 26-28% by 2030 compared with 2005". The Climate Solutions Fund has established projects in agriculture, grassland fire management, oil and gas, transportation, waste disposal and other fields. Among them, the agricultural sector has set up a project of grassland and farmland soil carbon sequestration, mainly through qualified land management activities such as conservation tillage, to store carbon in the soil, improve the soil carbon level of farmland and grassland, and participate in carbon market transactions through carbon credits and other means to reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
(2) Main practices
Market participants can obtain carbon credits by running soil carbon projects and sell them to the Australian government, companies or other private buyers to realize the value of soil carbon sinks.
1. Soil carbon project management
The Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources is the competent department of the Climate Solution Fund, which is responsible for formulating policies, technical rules, relevant legislation and supervision; CleanEnergyRegulator is responsible for the actual operation of the fund, the specific drafting of technical rules (methods), and the procurement of carbon emission reduction (carbon credit purchase) on behalf of the government. In terms of emission reduction and carbon sequestration methods, there are generally two methods to calculate the carbon sequestration of agricultural soil: one is to estimate the carbon sequestration of soil by default value method, and the other is to calculate the carbon sequestration of agricultural system. The former is an empirical method and the latter is a measurement method. The Climate Solution Fund mainly adopts the latter method, and obtains the carbon sequestration of agricultural soil through sampling and testing, and then converts it into carbon credits.
2. Plan drawing
In the project planning stage, the applicant needs to participate in the qualification examination organized by the clean energy regulatory agency. The contents of the review include: 1. The land involved in the project was pasture and cultivated land (such as planting crops, fruits or vegetables) in the past 10 years, but forests, drainage wetlands and land with buildings cannot be used as project land; Second, the applicant has legitimate rights and interests related to the land, such as land ownership, lease or signing a contract with the land owner to allow the project to be carried out on the land; The third is to obtain the approval of the natural resources management department and other regulatory departments, as well as the consent of the legitimate rights and interests of land; The fourth is to ensure that the project is brand-new and the land involved in the project has not participated in other similar projects. The key issues that need to be paid attention to in the project planning stage include: first, the applicant needs to formulate a brand-new land management plan and introduce at least one new land management activity or land management behavior that is substantially different from the original management activity to promote the improvement of soil carbon sequestration level; According to Australia's Determination Method of Soil Carbon Fixation in Agricultural System 20 18, available land management activities include fertilization, soil remediation with lime or gypsum, stubble after harvest, and changing from intensive cultivation to less tillage or no tillage. Second, the applicant needs to be organized and implemented by the clean energy regulatory agency through "FitandPropertPerson Assessment". By comprehensively considering the applicant's past law-abiding situation and debt situation, evaluate whether he has the ability to perform the project. When the applicant thinks that he has no technical expertise or it is difficult to effectively manage the project, he can also be the project sponsor and hire a professional agent. The latter is generally a carbon service provider or other individuals who can operate projects according to law. Third, the applicant needs to evaluate the return and cost of the project. In the project return estimation, the amount of carbon credit that can be obtained within the 25-year credit period (the year when the project applicant can obtain carbon credit, and the credit period of the soil carbon project is 25 years) is comprehensively affected by factors such as land scale, management activities, soil type, climate change, existing soil carbon level, and project geographical location. The price of carbon credit is determined by the auction organized by the government or the secondary market. The project cost mainly includes expenses such as operation, sampling, reporting and auditing, among which the operation cost is mainly the cost of various land management activities, the sampling cost is the cost of hiring soil technicians to collect soil samples and conduct laboratory analysis, the reporting cost is mainly generated by hiring carbon service providers to write reports, and the auditing cost is mainly generated by hiring auditors to write audit reports.
3. Project registration
Before the start of the project, the applicant needs to register the project on the website of the clean energy regulatory agency, including submitting all kinds of qualification documents, project land management strategy, project area map, estimated emission reduction, etc., and can choose the project period of 25 years or 100. Among them, the land management strategy of the project will support the increase of soil carbon during the project duration; If the project implementation area increases or the land management activities change, it is necessary to resubmit the land management strategy. The land management strategy of the project mainly includes: qualified land management activities (at least one activity must be carried out until the end of the duration), limiting factors and risks threatening soil carbon fixation, additional steps that the project sponsor needs to take (mainly monitoring and record-keeping procedures), list of land activities that are restricted or prohibited, etc. The project land management strategy needs to be signed by the project sponsor, land property owner and other stakeholders to ensure effective supervision of the implementation process. At the same time, the land management strategy of the project needs to be reviewed by qualified and independent personnel, such as agronomists or natural resource management officials who have no economic interest in the project. Audit frequency: at least once every five years during the credit period, and at least once every 10 year after the end of the credit period; When land management activities have undergone major changes, they should also be reviewed. In addition, the project applicant also needs to provide the long-term emission reduction estimate (FAE) in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2), which is the best estimate of the carbon credit that may be obtained during the project accounting period, and is mainly used for the project audit plan arrangement. In order to obtain a more accurate estimate, the applicant should make clear the specific activity type and activity area, and reasonably estimate the emission reduction by using specific methods or according to expert suggestions. Among them, the methods recommended by clean energy regulators include solid waste calculator and FullCAM tool.
4. Project operation
After the project registration is completed, the project can operate according to the planned carbon sink activities and obtain carbon credit. First, carry out baseline sampling, that is, measure the initial soil carbon level after the project registration is completed and before the first report. The Climate Solutions Fund proposes to start baseline sampling before land management activities to reduce carbon credit losses. According to the start time of baseline sampling, the project manager can set the sampling frequency and establish a sampling plan, which must specify the sampling location, sampling method and related information. Sampling should be conducted in the carbon estimation area, and the sampling quantity depends on the change degree of soil and management activities in the project, but at least 9 samples should be collected randomly in each carbon estimation area. Professional and independent soil technicians are needed to assist in sampling. Usually, a soil sampler is used to drill into the ground to extract soil samples with a depth of at least 30 cm, and the soil samples are sent to a laboratory approved by the Climate Solution Fund for dry-hot combustion analysis. Sampling should be completed within 60 days after the start of this round of sampling, and the interval of each round of sampling should be at least one year, but not more than five years. After the baseline sampling is completed, new qualified land management activities can be carried out according to the land management strategy, and sampling analysis can be carried out as planned.
5. Reporting and carbon credit acquisition
After the operation of the project, the project party can obtain carbon credit by measuring the change of soil carbon and providing an offset report to explain the change results. The reporting period is 1~5 years, and the offset report includes a copy of land management strategy and land management activities, sampling rounds and results, changes in soil carbon level during the reporting period, emissions in the project area during the reporting period, and net emission reduction during the reporting period. Among them, the net emission reduction is the change of soil organic carbon level minus the emission generated by the project in the reporting period (in tons), which comes from the use of fuel, fertilizer and livestock breeding in the project area. The project sponsor can submit an offset report on the portal of the clean energy regulatory agency, and register an account in the Australian National Emission Unit Registry to obtain carbon credit (ACCU), and the carbon credit per unit is equivalent to 65,438+0 tons of carbon dioxide. The clean energy regulator will evaluate the compensation report within 90 days. If the report is valid, the corresponding carbon credit will be sent to the account of the project sponsor. In order to ensure that the amount of carbon credits issued will not overestimate the actual amount of carbon stored, the Climate Solution Fund has set three discounts: one is the discount on the project duration (100 minus 5% and 25% in 25 years), mainly to prevent the risk of losing irrecoverable carbon reserves. The second is the two-round sampling discount, that is, the carbon credits obtained by the first and second sampling after baseline sampling are measured at 50% of the actual measurement, and the discount is not used for the third and subsequent sampling. These discounts are temporary, only for the changes of soil carbon level measured in the first two rounds of sampling after baseline sampling. If the third and subsequent sampling is conducted, the discount will no longer be used and the first two rounds will be cancelled. Mainly to prevent the risk of unstable soil carbon level measured in the first two rounds of sampling. The third is to report the change discount of soil carbon sequestration (the greater the change, the greater the discount), mainly to set the change degree of soil carbon sequestration for each report. The greater the change, the greater the discount, and vice versa. Mainly to prevent the uncertain risks of the project, the discount amount will be set according to the change degree of soil carbon sequestration in each calculation. If the change trend of soil carbon sequestration in each report is completely consistent, the discount is zero.
6. Operation and trading mechanism
Formal transactions are generally organized by clean energy regulators to reverse auction and purchase carbon credits from projects. The project sponsor can apply to the clean energy regulatory agency, and after examination and approval, go through the auction registration and obtain the auction qualification. Each participant puts forward a single and confidential bid during the auction window, and the lowest bid is most likely to win, and signs a carbon reduction contract with the clean energy regulatory agency representing the Australian government, which will represent the government to obtain the best cost performance of carbon sinks. The auction is supervised by an independent integrity consultant, who evaluates the business process, the separation of roles and responsibilities, and the confidentiality of information such as auction bidding and emission reduction. Carbon emission reduction contracts are divided into fixed delivery and optional delivery. The fixed delivery contract requires the project sponsor to provide a certain amount of accu at a fixed price during the contract period, and the project sponsor can arrange to deliver the agreed amount of ACCU during the whole contract period. The contract starts when the clean energy management agency informs the project sponsor that the auction is successful and ends when the ACCU finally delivers and pays all the money. During this period, the project sponsor will deliver the agreed quantity of ACCU according to the delivery schedule provided by himself. The optional delivery contract stipulates that the project sponsor has the right to sell the carbon credit to the Australian federal government at the agreed price within the specified time, which provides a fixed price guarantee for the carbon credit owner and can be used for the development and financing of carbon sink projects or other licenses. The longest flexible period for qualified projects is 65,438+00 years. When the auction bidder transfers the carbon credit to the clean energy regulatory agency according to the contract, the latter will pay the bank account designated by the bidder to complete the transaction. In addition, the project sponsors can also sell carbon credits to other entities that have signed contracts with clean energy regulators in the secondary market, or to private companies that want to offset their emissions.
(iii) Major achievements
Australian soil carbon sink is a useful exploration of the realization mechanism of ecosystem carbon sink value, which not only expands the new types of carbon sink by using cultivated land ecosystem, but also realizes the effective protection of cultivated land resources, forming an economic chain and a virtuous circle of cultivated land protection.
First, it is conducive to the protection of cultivated land resources. As an important form of soil carbon fixation, all kinds of conservation tillage are beneficial to increase the carbon content in soil. Australia's soil carbon sequestration project has made detailed regulations on this, strictly restricting the management activities of cultivated land, promoting the formation of soil organic carbon and the increase of other nutrients, and effectively improving the quality of cultivated land. For example, the practice case of New South Wales, Australia shows that by implementing measures such as whole stubble, soil erosion can be reduced, soil organic matter can be increased, and cultivated land productivity and drought resistance can be improved.
Second, it is beneficial to the establishment of soil carbon sink system. Through financial support, Australia has established a climate settlement fund, formulated measures such as soil carbon sink calculation methods, credit generation methods and trading methods, and formed a compensation mechanism for the government to purchase soil carbon sinks, which has improved the enthusiasm of all parties to participate in soil carbon sink projects, promoted the generation of soil carbon sink credit and its activity in market transactions, and contributed to the establishment of a complete ecosystem carbon sink system and carbon neutrality.
Third, it has promoted the realization of ecological value through economic means. Since the establishment of agricultural soil carbon project in Australia, the number of effective applications has increased year by year. In the first half of 2002/kloc-0, there were 45 agricultural soil carbon projects (including cultivated land and pasture) in Australia, exceeding the level of the same period in 2020 (9); The ACCU generated by the agricultural carbon project reached 275,600 units. At the same time, the compensation funds paid by the Australian government for each ACCU increased from about 65,438+09 dollars in June 1965 to 65,438+04.5 dollars in June 2026, 5438+0, which is conducive to promoting the realization of the value of soil carbon sink products and forming a virtuous circle of cultivated land protection.