Expert questions efficacy of soil carbon farming in warmer climatesBy Anna CoxABC Midwest & WheatbeltTopic:Agricultural Technology27m ago27 minutes agoWed 30 Apr 2025 at 11:57pmCarbon farming developers are under scrutiny in WA. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Anna Cox)In short: Project developers looking to sign landholders up to 25 to 100-year contracts for soil carbon farming in Western Australia's Mid West Wheatbelt region have come under fire.One expert says it is highly unlikely that carbon can be stored in the soil of this region.What's next?Landholders want to see proof that it can be done in the Mid West Wheatbelt region before investing.abc.net.au/news/soil-carbon-questions-mid-west-wheatbelt-western-australia/105207690Link copiedShareShare articleEfforts to sign up farms in Western Australia's agricultural heartland to carbon farming schemes are being questioned, with an expert labeling the practice a financial risk for growers.Carbon farming group Carbon Sync is looking to sign up growers in the catchments around Irwin and Mingenew, about 360 kilometres north of Perth in WA's Wheatbelt.The practice changes land management strategies, including cover cropping between cash crops and time-controlled grazing to increase carbon storage in the soil.Landholders can then sell 1 tonne of stored carbon for 1 Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) to companies trying to offset carbon emissions.Industry perspectiveCarbon Sync is a soil carbon farming project developer funded by Chevron.It is the largest of its kind in WA, with 15,000 hectares under its management.Landholders pay Carbon Sync $15,000 per year for the first five years, a uniform cost, regardless of their property size.Managing director Louise Edmonds said Carbon Sync took on a proponent position for projects, meaning it held the risk and responsibility for each project's life.Louise Edmonds says she is confident in carbon farming. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Anna Cox)Carbon Sync then takes 35 per cent of the ACCUs generated.Ms Edmonds said there was no data yet about how much carbon had been stored from Carbon Sync's portfolio because all projects were in their first year."Building soil carbon is quite a slow process, and in our projects we will baseline in the first year of the project, then come back five years later to measure the increase in soil," she said.Measuring soil carbonSoil carbon is measured by assessing a 1-metre core sample in a laboratory.The process is repeated five years later.Ms Edmonds said Carbon Sync had not previously done its own testing as the project was new, but the method had been developed over 10 years."The whole method and the market is at a stage of maturing now where the confidence is there that it can be done," she said.Australian National University environmental law and policy scholar Andrew Macintosh said he believed farmers were taking a major risk as science showed sequestration of additional amounts of carbon in the soil around Irwin and Mingenew would be "unlikely".Andrew Macintosh says he worries farmers are taking a major risk. (ABC News: Alex McDonald)He said farmers signing "permanence obligations" of either 25 or 100 years risked not receiving credits or eventually needing to pay credits back due to no sequestration occurring."I'm very concerned for anybody doing a soil carbon project in [this] part of Western Australia," he said.Mr Macintosh said storing carbon in the soil of the Midwest and Wheatbelt region was unlikely."It is very difficult to do so in a way that you have confidence that the credit issued in relation to changes in soil carbon actually reflect the impacts of management changes, rather than … seasonal changes," he said."Natural variability, year-to-year changes driven by climate and [seasons] both naturally result in carbon going up and down."Those changes are significantly larger than any management changes."Seasonal variability is the primary driver of the changes in soil carbon stocks."[The landholder] can start at a time when the soil carbon is naturally high on their land they come back five years later and due to seasonal changes [the levels] have dropped."So even though they've committed an action, they get no credits or revenue from what they've done."I think it's very unlikely that they're going to be successful."Ms Edmonds said the concerns were "fair" as carbon farming had not been attempted in the area before, but Carbon Sync was confident."We wouldn't have invested all of the time, effort, and money into this if we didn't believe it could be done. We're out there, determining if it can be done," she said."In every agricultural innovation, there are pioneers and people who believe that it can be done and are willing to give it a go."Project viabilityMs Edmonds said projects registered five or six years ago on the east coast were now generating significant gains in soil carbon.The Clean Energy Regulator issued 150,000 ACCUs across two projects in Queensland for the first time under the soil carbon method in 2024.Turning soil carbon into cashPhoto shows A hand in the dirt holds the roots to show a close up of the root system.Dirt, bugs, microbes and carbon, Australian farmers are finally getting large-scale returns for what is sequestered in their soil"The projects that we're registering right now [in WA] are actually trials, you could look at it like that," Ms Edmonds said."These things don't happen quickly, and the approach that we're taking is a commercial approach to demonstrating the viability of the projects."Professor Macintosh said he believed a small number of projects were working as they should, but "90 per cent or more" were not.He said the fundamental flaw was in the administration by the Clean Energy Regulator."This scheme is plagued by terrible administration by the body that is meant to regulate this," he said."I fear that these people haven't been told the whole truth."A spokesperson for the Clean Energy Regulator said, like any business activity, implementing emission avoidance and carbon sequestration projects would have risks.Project developers say soil carbon has never been measured in the Mid West. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Anna Cox)"If proponents understand these risks and how to manage them, they can make informed decisions about scheme participation and maximise project outcomes," they said."Crediting risks under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme are managed by scientifically robust methods, conservative measurement and modeling approaches, and comprehensive administrative controls."Grower concernsChief executive of farmer representative body Mingenew Irwin Group, Dee McKeown, said he believed in the benefits of soil carbon but said growers needed more evidence before investing in the practice.Dee McKeown says growers are cautious of risk. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Anna Cox)"There is still a lot of unknown from the grower's side," he said."The soil carbon side, in particular, there are a lot of perceived restrictions in what we can do with our soil types and with our climate."Mr McKeown said growers did not want to lose efficiencies in their operations and needed to maintain productive land with minimal risk to ensure food security for Australia."We don't want to put ourselves at risk. We want to know the methods available to us are genuine options to us in the region," he said."Growers are very unique in that science only applies when they see it in practice because regions are so different."ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt — local news in your inboxGet our local newsletter, delivered free each ThursdayYour information is being handled in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement.Email addressSubscribePosted 27m ago27 minutes agoWed 30 Apr 2025 at 11:57pmShare optionsCopy linkFacebookX (formerly Twitter)Top StoriesThe strange 'ballot-fellows' revealed on parties' how-to-vote cardsTopic:ElectionsPhoto shows green how to vote cards in the background with a text box that says enter your suburbDutton turns to Voice as cost of living alone won't save the CoalitionDAnalysis by David SpeersPhoto shows Anthony Albanese NPC for Speers ColumnPeter Dutton drops vow to change school curriculum, after 'indoctrination' claimsTopic:Public SchoolsPhoto shows Dutton looks down the barrell of the camera.US, Ukraine sign resources deal two months after Oval Office clashTopic:World PoliticsPhoto shows Scott Bessent and Yulia Svyrydenko sign papers at a desk in front of US and Ukrainian flags.Hackers have 'compromised' almost 100 bank employees, experts sayTopic:Cyber CrimePhoto shows A generic graphic image including a gold dollar sign and some websites.Related storiesCan agriculture really act as a carbon sink to neutralise the emissions of heavy polluters?Topic:AgriculturePhoto shows A coal-fired power plant surrounded by smog and smokeGas giant Woodside joins carbon farming 'gold rush' with $53m purchase of NSW grazing landTopic:DecarbonisationPhoto shows A flare tower with two flames at the top.Australia's first large-scale lot of soil carbon credits are out. 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