Carbon Conscious applauds carbon initiative
THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Carbon credit offsetting company Carbon Conscious has welcomed the passage of the Commonwealth Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) legislation through the upper house of Federal Parliament.
Carbon Conscious delivers carbon offsets via the development of forestry plantation projects.
The company operates plantation forests in Western Australia’s wheatbelt region and in New Zealand, utilising low productivity or degraded farm land in low rainfall areas to plant native tree species.
According to company executive chairman Steve Low passage of the CFI legislation provides additional certainty for investors in carbon bio-sequestration projects by creating a mechanism through which Australia can become a leading player in the global carbon economy.
“The CFI provides certainty for the carbon bio-sequestration industry and confidence for major carbon emitters and investors, who are looking for proven, reliable ways to offset their carbon emissions,” Low said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“Growing trees to create carbon credits not only helps reduce carbon emissions, it converts poor quality land into productive land and generates long-term environmental, social and economic benefits for local communities.”
The company is confident the CFI and the expected passage of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by October / November will be encouraging factors for Australian businesses to buy and sell carbon credits on an open market.
“The establishment of an ETS in Australia will allow us to better integrate our Australian and New Zealand plantation businesses, and deliver structured projects that are optimized for our customers,” Low continued.
In July, Carbon Conscious said the introduction of a carbon price and the passage of the CFI would make it more likely that up to $190 million worth of commercial options to plant trees on behalf of existing clients would be exercised.
The company already has existing contracts with Origin Energy and BP worth $45 million.
The deal it has signed with Origin Energy is the largest, fully executed, bio-sequestration deal in Australia’s history.
“Our expectation is that new international opportunities will present now that the CFI legislative framework is in place,” Low said.
With the passage of the legislation, we can now prepare for next year’s winter planting season with renewed confidence as well as continue to expand the business to capitalise on potential significant additional demand from clients.”
Carbon Conscious will be one of the companies presenting at the Clean Energy Symposium