They cannot see it, weigh it or haul it, but more farmers are buying into the idea of selling the carbon stored in their soil.
“There was skepticism but once they understand the science of carbon sequestration in the soil, it makes perfect sense,” said Bill Dorgan of Agri-Trend Aggregation, a carbon aggregator company formed last August under the umbrella of consulting firm Agri-Trend Agrology.
Crops remove carbon from the atmosphere and fix it in the soil, as organic matter. Alberta farmers who have practised zero or minimum tillage since the 2002 crop year can earn money, said Dorgan, whose company is signing up farmers to sell their carbon credits to large emitters, which need them to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
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Bob Coulter of the Didsbury, Alta.-based Emission Credit Corp. did a deal with Trans Alta Corp. and 900 farmers across Alberta received a total of $1.5 million.
“Instead of using a tax, we are using a market-based approach to help the environment right now. We don’t have to wait until 2020,” Coulter said in reference to government and industry agreements to reduce emissions.
The amount of carbon sequestration is calculated with a formula that assesses the region, soil type and tillage practices. For example, in the parkland region of central Alberta, five acres equals one credit.
The dry prairie requires 10 acres to make one credit under the zero till protocol.
“When you talk acres it depends on crop type that’s grown and the ecoregion of the land mass,” Coulter said.
A deal between the electricity generating firm Epcor and the Carbon Reduction Offsets Projects (CROP) will see Epcor buy up to two million tonnes of verified emission credits from a half million acres. Farmers are paid based on the amount of verified emission reductions they create by reduced soil tillage.
There are potentially 110 buyers of credits in the province that require about 20 million tonnes of carbon credits.
“In order to meet that demand we have to have additional activities that we can transact on,” said Coulter.
The Alberta market only accepts conservation tillage but the newly formed association of carbon aggregator companies wants the province to recognize additional offset programs like native pastures and perennial forages. These may not be recognized until next year.
The Alberta carbon market was set up last July to reduce pollution from industrial, agricultural and municipal sources that release carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and several other chemical compounds. Offsets are one of the mechanisms companies can use to reach compliance.
Alberta facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year are required to reduce their emissions by 12 percent under the act passed last year. Companies can buy Alberta-based offset credits, make operating improvements or pay into the climate change emissions management fund at a rate of $15 per tonne of emissions by March 31 of each year.
The fund supports projects that would help it fulfil one or more of the following mandates:
- Reduce greenhouse gas releases using technologies that in total by 2020 will achieve a 50 percent reduction in emissions per unit of gross domestic product.
- Create clean coal and carbon technologies for demonstration plants by 2010 and fully commercial plants by 2020.
- Have a demonstration or commercial application of renewable energy production technologies in Alberta to provide 20 percent of energy production by 2020.
- Develop technologies to bring a 50 percent reduction in the use of fresh water by the energy industry in Alberta by 2020.
- Develop sound, scientific policy that includes guidelines, codes of practice, standards and regulations relating to climate change, land reclamation or remediation, air emissions, water quality or quantity and waste water treatment.
