Soil carbon sequestration seems like a win for everyone It improves soil quality
it removes CO2 from the atmosphere and it provides additional source of income for farmer’s via carbon credits. It forms a major part of federal government plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 with one official estimate suggesting that nearly a fifth of our current yearly emissions could be negated with soil carbon is its really possible to put a huge chunk of our emissions in the soil?
And how can we do it.?
What holding soil carbon farming back ?
So how can carbon be sequestered in soils?
How much is it currently done and how much could we sequester in soils?
Ellen essentially Sequestering carbon in soils is what we speak of when we're talking about how we build the amount of soil organic matter in the soil and the way of it Because carbon is a critical part of soil organic matter and organic carbon exists in the context of broader complex and organic material along with nitrogen phosphorus sulphur potassium and whole range of other nutrients But since it's put into the soil by the biological process of photosynthesis Carbon dioxide captured by plants converted into materials in a photosynthetic process trans located down below ground through the roots for either a weed a wheat crop a large woody biomass It's all the same sort of process to start with As the plants die They also secrete and exude carbon into the soil it leaves behind a debris the residue containing soil carbon And that's how the soil carbon builds up in the soil.
- Soil Texture
- So there are management practices that can increase it?
- what are the current incentives for farmers to do more of this?
- The soil carbon method you can look that up And how effective is it?
- Widespread Practices?
- Measuring Soil Carbon
- Remote and Proximal Sensing Technologies
- Measurement Important
- Government Need To Be Involved?
- Fund Coordinate
At the same time it's also decomposing and disappearing and for the restoration process being released back into the atmosphere as CO2 That's the natural carbon cycle that occurs in our soils and our vegetation What we're trying to do here is actually increase the pool of carbon that's actually in the soil as organic carbon And if you like really stretching out that residence time beyond yeah over many many years that you were actually building the amount of soil carbon sequestered in the soil Right And does that soil capacity change from place.
Soil Texture
It's dependent upon some of the natural attributes of soil especially the soil texture How much sand sealed clay you have in the soil A soil that has a higher clay content will naturally be able to suppress more soil than a soil that has higher sand content And to take that one to one extreme extent of the spectrum a beach! Beach sand you won't find any organic material much at all in a beach Take it to the end of the spectrum Wholly clay dominated soil You have organic carbon material there The organic carbon the small particles aims to help bind and protect the carbon organic carbon protected from the microbes that would eat it and decompose it.
The other key natural attribute is rainfall and What we've found is that organic carbon is positively correlated with increased average annual rainfall for the most part And the natural thing is that you get more rainfall you get more plant more plant production more biomass production you're getting more inputs of carbon into the soil And then beyond that we start The different types of soil types there's also impacts But then beyond that we also then start talking about management practices and how they might have an influence in trying to increase our soil organic carbon.
So there are management practices that can increase it?
Yeah that's that's what we're really on about here So given that there are natural factors at play which we can't really control directly What are those management practices in which we can hope to influence and increase that organic carbon sequestration Now we'll probably talk a bit more about that But the good thing fortunately is a lot of those management practices correlate with what we know as good farm management good agricultural practice at the same time And what's good for building organic carbon is good for building organic matter in the soil good for soil health good for soil productivity good for overall farm productivity and profitability at the end of the day Right So there's an agricultural benefit to soil carbon sequestration Louisa.
what are the current incentives for farmers to do more of this?
These are they effective incentives? Morning Ellen and thank you for having me So the current incentives we now have a carbon market we now have carbon farming at full carbon trade And that is something that Australia is at the forefront of And we are actually the only country that has soil Paris Agreement compliant Soil carbon credits even though it's very small doesn't matter There are there are many countries which would love to have the sort of market that we've got Overall our carbon farming for carbon trade in the vegetation in the vegetation and other spaces So not just agricultural but landfill save and burning a whole stack of areas We're actually a 2 over a 2 billion dollar industry here in Australia So it's not to be sneezed at and it explains in some degree why we have got some government support And so our incentives at the moment are a couple of fold Number One in the soil carbon space you can undertake A soil carbon project Using the approved soil carbon method.
To achieve what's known as an Australian carbon credit unit or an ACCU that is for increases over and above your baseline So what Michael was talking about you know you might have a base line It varies because of those things that he was talking about and that will be your baseline which is measured And the incentive to go higher is that there is a market based instrument called the carbon market that will buy that CO2 that you have proven that you've sequestered via photosynthetic activity of every solar panel on your farm called a leaf And Michael referred to increases in biomass above and below ground to do that And so that is the major incentive is an approved government method.
The soil carbon method you can look that up And how effective is it?
Well it's taken time because as you've recently found there's not necessarily a lot of understanding about this And that has been the case forever since we have started this which was in 2007 I had my first carbon farming conference and expo in 2007 in Mud gee and next year is my tenth So it's taken that amount of time to to be able to get the science right write the method get the policy in place But now we are blessed in that Soil carbon is one of Minister Taylor's five technology roadmap solutions Now You know while there might be discussion around how much can be done and what can be done We have got the wherewithal now to move this forward From a place where people didn't understand it much at all to a place where it is has potential to become a really important part of what we're doing.
In the towards zero space So to complement what Louisa was saying and about those more direct financial incentives for encouraging farmers to sequester carbon There's also the intangible benefits which I probably didn't touch upon so much before But for the intangible and the indirect financial benefits that ultimately soil carbon is good for your soil Through the impact it has on soil structure soil fertility nutrient availability biological activity water holding capacity water infiltration every every backyard gardener knows adding compost to your veggie patch adding manure adding organic material to your veggie patch is good for your soil.
That's what we're trying to do But not on your veggie patch on a broad acre basis across hundreds of thousands of hectares across Australia And it's not so easy to just shovel out of a bag of chook manure It's how we do that at scale And that's where the additional that brings benefits to the farmer both in those intangible benefits and for ultimately increased productivity and profitability But how we do that at scale and that's where we need additional incentives to make that happen to assist that to happen with farmers because it does What research needs to be done and what sort of technology down need to get it to scale to induce more.
Widespread Practices?
So I've had a bit to say about this lately in that Some of the practices we are talking about like reduced tillage reduced cultivation no tillage A lot of Australian farmers have been doing that for quite a long time anyway retaining their stubbles not burning stubble in a cropping context A lot of farmers have been doing that In a grazing situation improving your pastures So you're getting greater pasture productivity and perennial or permanent pastures that are growing for most of the year as much of the year as possible.
Grazing management rotating your livestock Such as the grazing pressure is not continuous and intense but allows plants to re-grow and in turn put carbon below into their roots These are practices that many farmers have been doing not everybody and not in all areas But what we're looking for then is something else we can do over and above those good practices And how we make that work in a farming business Such that the main game is still about agricultural and food production.
Grain or livestock or vegetables or horticulture But it's it' s about how we can make it work in that context and across the broad spectrum of soil types farming systems rainfalls climates across Australia That's where we need to have a bit more focus as well Developing those technologies And I would certainly say that So in Minister Taylor's roadmap and the soil carbon he has set a goal of soil carbon testing being down to three dollars per hectare Now the testing of the soil has been one of the barriers to uptake of the method Because it's very specific you need You have to follow this method to the word And so you know your core for your core sampling has to be X amount You know the depth that you go to the OH&S that you've got to go through There's a lot to do Just getting a soil core So some of the research that's now being evolved because there is now potentially an incentive for suppliers to supply technology for soil testing that doesn't mean that you have to dig a hole for instance Right up till now we've had to dig holes in order to test the soil.
But there are there are technologies coming along that Michael might even know about whereby you know we you know satellite might be still a pipe dream but technologies that can go down into the soil and detect the soil carbon without having to dig holes Now that's a really big change that's actually reflected in the most recent soil carbon method Because we're now we've now got a method that can go measurement model measure So we are moving towards how do we get the models well enough good enough that we can establish the baseline of soil carbon You can't be paid for the soil carbon that's already there You can only be paid for an increase So the technologies that need to come need to do that sort of research and those sorts of technologies Other things that are coming along is how we streamline audits and other processes that we have to go through And that is because when you are selling CO2 Ellen you're selling an order less substance that you can't see or hold and you know and so therefore the rigor of what you have to go through in order to prove that you've done.
it Is very high So you know these are the things that will move along And I actually think the other things that will come along are things like block chain solutions and you know all of those really modern things.
Measuring Soil Carbon
That people will start to understand even in that trading spaces to how the trading might develop along those lines For a whole range of reasons measuring soil carbon To give the markets a confidence be it the government or the voluntary markets a confidence that what you say you've got in your paddock at the back there Is actually there! Does take a bit of effort partly because of the inherent variability and uncertainty associated with those measurements And just to take an example Soil carbon organic carbon in soil It's typically one to 3% of the total soil In one hectare You've got 10000 tonnes of soil and you're trying to measure 100100 tonnes of carbon in a hectare And and the rate of increase the rate of change right sequestration might be up to say a tonne of carbon per hectare So over a ten year period you're trying to find a ten tonne increase in carbon against the natural background of 100 tons plus or -10 in among the 10000 tonnes of soil How much of that soil do you need to sample to actually confidently estimate that? And so how do you best sample and given all this of carbon is it's not like water where it distributes evenly through the mass It's it's location very specific. so you got a take enough samples It's not like a forestry situation where you can count the trees and you know how much woods in each tree and how much carbons in that wood And you can quickly calculate It's unseen! So that's why it's cost so much That's why the government has insisted upon having the protocols in place to over-come it or to address it that variability is uncertainty that's associated with carbon estimates That's cost money So the other approach is as Louisa was going to How can we estimate the carbon without the need to be sampling it?
Remote and Proximal Sensing Technologies
Taking some many samples sending them to the lab So yeah I'm using both remote and proximal sensing technologies to correlate and through a whole range of algorithms that have been developed to be able to correlate a reading on the sensors With what we do know is in the organic carbon and hence do it cheaply rapidly and with enough accuracy to give the markets the confidence that what you say you've got is there Actually on those sensors.
What would they be sensing for? Is it just taking in a huge amount of data and then figuring out how much carbon is stored from that? Or is it sampling CO2 in the atmosphere above the soil? It is looking at the spectrum with infrared spectrum type of approaches There's a reflectance associated with a whole range of properties in the soil that can be detected either proximately or you know from from a close distance or via satellite or remote sensing.
And so the smart boffins in that area are working hard with enough data and the power of data large amounts of data to develop those algorithms those correlations to make estimates of what's in the organic carbon So yeah I get the impression that the technological questions are mostly about not so much. getting the carbon into the soil but demonstrating that it is going in the soil or that it's not Is that sort of a correct summary? I'm going to argue the opposite Ellen OK .
Measurement Important
But that's only part of a story because you measure it doesn't mean we can actually make it on or get it there That's what I'm trying to say But I've used this line before just because you got a better stopwatch doesn't mean you can run faster! Just you've got a better set of scales it doesn't mean you're gone a to lose weight !We actually need to give farmers tools and technologies and they need to be able to confidently Put in their farming systems on their soil types make the soil carbon sequester the soil carbon And through the variety of years that we have too both wet years and dry years and increasingly under climate change potentially a few more dry years as well And you imagine there's less rainfall there's less biomass being produced The carbon is still disappearing as it's been eaten by the bugs but that's what we also need to manage for So Well I'm saying with the emphasis from the government on technology technology.
for gas and hydrogen and solar etc We also need the technology for soil carbon tool to make this work Right Louisa do you think do you agree? Yes Look we we have always said if you build it they will come And so the financial incentive for the suppliers So at my conferences I have about 35 exhibitors and they need to show farmers why they believe that what they have an assist them to put carbon back into the soil And importantly to keep it You know this is And we know that there's been you know there are few short of the flavor of the month Ones will will come up and how they last will be will be the thing.
And so and we haven't spoken really about equilibrium either But So there are there because the price of carbon has now gone to $3650 a tonne in the secondary market up from $1420 in 2020 So it's rapidly growing When the Prime Minister says he thinks the private sector will do the work for him this is the type of thing that he's talking about Know he thinks that the demand will drive the price which will then drive the businesses behind these these things And that is true But I'm as keen as Michael is to make sure that you know this is not a flash in the pan This is something that takes a number of years to do just to get it started And then you have to keep on going I think we're learning by doing I think we're learning using that approach that the Prime Minister's Hot and also the soil CRC And those those other guys It's sort of like we can't What's that thing where we can't we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good And so you know by driving this forward we're also assisting to drive the funding into the research areas such as what the soil CRC and things like that are doing So I see it as a sort of a thing that's growing together And a farmer needs to go in with his eyes wide open and the method does it's sort of best in order to make it very clear that if you don't increase your soil carbon you're not going to get paid However you may you may increase your soil water holding capacity you soil structure and those co-benefits And just to mention also that in the marketplace there is a big push on the biodiversity side of things now you know so it's not necessarily just carbon it could be carbon plus biodiversity.
It could be biodiversity on its own It could be stewardship We're widening out this sort of area However we have to understand that if you want to count it against your carbon footprint you need a credit such as an ACCU an Australian Carbon Credit Unit that is done in tonnes of CO2 according to a very high standard That's a really important point I think that kind of leads to the next question is what sorts of policy do we need to improve this and what levels of.
Government Need To Be Involved?
Is this a local thing? Is that a state thing? Is it a federal thing? The way I see it it's very much a federal government responsibility For a range of reasons And as we just saw demonstrated in Glasgow Because this is part of Australia's commitment globally so to be led by the federal government also to ensure that across Australia We do have a consistent set of rules and terms and processes Worst thing would happen and it is potentially confusing space if we had six seven or eight different sets of rules and regulations for how it's all going to be measured actually attribute verified reported etc And To get that consistency and That's A big part of these issue is who wears the risk? And I talk about risk because carbon can go up in the soil It can also go down It can The levels can decrease land that can happen through both natural factors and manmade factors if you like So I'll talk about natural factors For extended drought periods Soil carbon can can decrease That's beyond an individual's control But conversely in the same way that you might implement practices that build organic carbon sometime in the next ten 20 30 years you or your whoever you sold the farm to along the way might undertake actions that decrease soil carbon.
Who pays for that? Where's the risk? and these are things that are being factored into various agreements and contracts Well I guess we'll I'm also saying is that needs to be made clear and also it can't be totally borne by the farmers themselves and that's what they're saying It's a it's it's where government assistance if you like can help to really clarify those rules and regulations around If you're improving your soil carbon you are improving your drought resilience There is a potential that you will go into drought later come out sooner because of the work that you've done now.
Now that's that aspect And if we don't do that then it's going to be worse for the poor farmers let's say the poor as in those that don't farm as well Within the soil carbon method if you feel that you lost carbon during a drought then you can put a you don't have to report and until so you don't get a credit unless you report it and claim it you're going to claim the carbon in order to get it So if you think that you need to pause it because of a drought often droughts are followed by the sort of thing that we've got now So it's really difficult to sort of balance those things you know everything that you may have lost because one of the main things in the soil carbon space to increase to keep your ground covered which is another gardening thing Ellen now anybody who runs a garden also knows that you don't As soon as you put an empty space the weeds will come up.
That's what they love you know weeds love empty spaces and they do it in a carbon in the farming sense as well So you're attempting to keep that one other aspect of the soil carbon method is that it actually retains with the new method25% of your first credit claiming order that it's a sort of insurance against some of those things happening if you show an increase after that then then that will decrease So the government has put in you know some insurances in there It's a case of how much do you put in there before a farmer will go on that's too much you know I'm not I'm not going to have a go at this type of thing So I hope that makes a little bit of sense as well And if I can add the other role of government here is helping to both support.
Fund Coordinate
The development of the technology The research a lot of the research on this area is characterized by Not not extreme cost but it's too costly for any individual farm business farm by themselves and agricultural R&D It's a fact of the federal of agricultural R&D This issue of market value is on its way Governments and industries that have come together to help support and coordinate research and and the government is doing that And early this year they released the National Soil Strategy and that helps to bring together both this area and a whole range of other Issues around soil management in Australia which is recognized as a very important issue and coordinates both the investment and the delivery of research by universities CSIRO state government agencies organizations such as the Soil CRC farmer groups grower groups across the country it's very important to have the end users of the farmers involved in the research.
bringing them together That's a central role for government to play in both funding and coordination about the activities too And I agree that the federal government should remain the main agency and you will find that the work that the state government is doing Queensland's got a thing called the Land Restoration Fund West Australia is mimicking that New South Wales is doing a whole stack of things that are still a little bit I'm not quite clear on them but they are all following the ACCU Australian Carbon Credit Unit root because because of its framework because of the rigor of it and because it can be used against anyone that wants to go carbon neutral they a farmer or an organization or a beer company whatever it is if they want to claim it against their footprint which is measured in CO2 they must have a reputable standard credit that they can offset it with That is and a government based one We're already credited with pretty good You know the ACCU is well regarded We have maintained our clean green you know strong government legislation Literally this is legislation Our method is LAW law So that's how seriously the government has has thought of this.
So that is why you wouldn't you wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of those things Trying to paint a picture here is it is some some great opportunities in soil carbon Which have many win win win situations but at the same time I probably also want to Hose down some of the hype and over expectation of the agricultural sector and that is the bigger climate change picture is it's still a whole range of other activities that need to be addressed more broadly And yes we probably need to accept we can't get rid of all emissions in our economy but there is going to be some emissions.
And so so sequestration be it through soil or through vegetation does In fact we need to to pursue those avenues to allow us to offset those emissions to draw down from the high levels of CO2you do have in the soil in the atmosphere? Sorry but it doesn't negate the need to address other emissions And and everyone recognizes and realizes that it's just a case of how far and how much But Yeah this isn't a license.
So it's all carbon sequestration isn't a license to allow us to pollute elsewhere And so as part of a bigger integrated future we need to address it And also in terms of some of the numbers that are being Predicted by some that we can achieve in soil carbon sequestration is probably there's a theoretical potential probably a more pragmatic and actual potential and ultimately a lot of this plan we're talking about Designs By farmers be they small family.
farmers or large corporate But not everyone is going to automatically spring out of it to increasing change in assistance to increase soil organic carbon Just because I can get a few extra dollars is a whole range of other behaviour al aspects related to adoption in agriculture to the uptake of technologies And That's some of the more pragmatic things we need to work with as well as the social element of this not just the physical or the the markets Might be a bit of a cheeky question but the federal government has estimated between 35 to 90 million tons of CO2 equivalent could be stored annually Do you think that's a feasible estimate ? No I don't Fair enough That's probably part of my where I was going with the different kind of theoretical aspirations and the pragmatic in terms of every year across our landscapes Achieving that sort of rate sequestration is not going to happen because the natural cycles Some some farms will achieve it in some years And collectively you end up with the other can't achieve it.
And also sorry there's a limit to this is not a straight line to forever Soils do reach an age where beyond which they cannot sequester or hold anymore carbon And that's another thing we will reach in coming decades And we have reached in some soils There's plenty of opportunity in some soils where we haven't a long way from it that actually get limits We probably also need some some more massive changes to land use from cropping to pastures from pastures to forestry and not all of those changes that some people want to make And that's to be expected as well We're going to come back to my rather definitive answer to your question No it's all that My caveat is is no Unless we actually do something about giving farmers those technologies to achieve they're using our current technologies.
And its own farming systems that's where we have to be So if we are to go closer to achieving those numbers coming back to the point I was making earlier the need to actually to give farmers the tools and knowledge and confidence they can to year in year out across all our soil types farming systems climates et cetera just can't sit on our So I had this on their backsides and think it's going to happen What I would just really like to add in terms of an enterprise for a farmer and this is something that so soil carbon not just soil carbon CO2 sequestration on farm and trees or in soils It's a revolution in a product because it's the only product that I know of and I'm sure someone's going to prove me wrong before too long that you can sell.
So you're selling the CO2 sequestration OK? Or selling that that which you've sequestered you sell the CO2 but you keep the benefit on farm The CO2 remains in your soil the CO2 remains in your trees So it really adds to that win win you know because not only have you sequestered that that ton of carbon you've also improved The resilience of that farm is improved the way that that farmers can continue to deliver food and fiver We're back to the no brainer in terms of you know one of our driving forces as we move forward with this is that it's a it's a it's a product that you can sell but keep the benefit on farms So it is a very revolutionary product that way.