Ian McClintock

The impacts on agriculture of the CPRS1 in its present form, will be many facetted with major, minor, direct, indirect and subtle effects.

A decision is to be made in 2013 about including agriculture as a ‘covered sector’ in 2015. The Government is ‘disposed’ to include agriculture, which means that it is very likely to be included, and will then become subject to obtaining/buying Carbon Credits, or as they are to be known under the CPRS, Australian Emission Units (AEU’s) to cover the emissions that are calculated as being emitted.

Some AEU’s may be initially given to farmers, or may have to be purchased at auction, or at a fixed price determined by the government.

In any event it is proposed to reduce the number of AEU’s regularly (such as annually) to reduce Australia’s total emissions to meet the target it has set in the CPRS by 2020 and 2050.

The implications of this decision will be costly and dramatic.

More in the full document here. [PDF, 29KB]