Carbon Farming Initiative

CFI Handbook

CFI Administrator

Activities—eligible and excluded

• The positive list
• Positive list guidelines—Common practice
• The negative list
• Negative list guidelines—Management of adverse impacts
• Salinity guidelines
• CFI rainfall map
• Kyoto and non-Kyoto activities
• Permanence

Offset methodologies

Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee

Recent developments

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Activities—eligible and excluded

  

The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) allows landholders to earn carbon credits for reducing emissions or storing carbon on their land.

For an activity to be eligible under the CFI, it must:

• be within the scope of the CFI
• be covered by an approved CFI methodology
• be on the positive list, and
• not be on the negative list.

Individual projects must also comply with other scheme requirements, including having the necessary water, planning and environmental approvals from all levels of government.

Regulations

The positive and negative lists are prescribed in Regulations.

The negative list regulations refer to the following products:

• A CFI rainfall map which shows long-term average annual rainfall for the purpose of determining how specified tree planting is dealt with under the Regulations.
• Salinity Guidelines to assist project proponents to determine whether their specified tree planting project contributes to the mitigation of dryland salinity.

Guides for the positive and negative lists

The positive and negative list guides and new activity proposal forms are now available.

• positive list guidelines and proposal form
• negative list guidelines and proposal form

These guides:

• provide CFI participants and communities with a clear process to suggest activities for inclusion on each list.
• explain how proposed activities will be assessed and how communities can have their say on whether particular activities should be included.

Development of the positive and negative lists

The Australian Government consulted broadly on the design, approval processes and content of the positive and negative lists. This occurred primarily through two consultation rounds:

• release of a consultation paper on 1 June 2011, and 
• release of exposure draft regulations in August 2011, which took into account stakeholder feedback from earlier consultation rounds. 

Scope of the Carbon Farming Initiative

The CFI covers projects that occur in the agriculture and land use sectors, as well as projects to reduce emissions from legacy landfill waste.

The following four types of projects could be eligible under the CFI, provided they are covered by a methodology, on the positive list and not on the negative list.

Agricultural emissions avoidance projects

Projects that avoid emissions of:

1. methane from the digestive tract of livestock
2. methane or nitrous oxide from the decomposition of livestock urine or dung
3. methane from rice fields or rice plants
4. methane or nitrous oxide from the burning of savannas or grasslands
5. methane or nitrous oxide from the burning of crop stubble in fields, crop residues in fields or sugar cane before harvest
6. methane or nitrous oxide from soil.

Landfill legacy emissions avoidance projects

Projects that avoid emissions of greenhouse gases from the operation of a landfill facility, to the extent to which the emissions are attributable to waste accepted by the facility before 1 July 2012.

Introduced animal emissions avoidance projects

Projects that avoid emissions of methane from the digestive tract of an introduced animal or emissions of methane or nitrous oxide from the decomposition of introduced animal urine or dung.

Sequestration offsets projects

Projects that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon in living biomass, dead organic matter or soil; or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon in, and avoid emissions of greenhouses gases from, living biomass, dead organic matter or soil.