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Julia Gillard meets blueberry farmer Ridley Bell on a visit to the Wollongbar Primary Industries Institute on the NSW north coast. Photo: Andrew Meares
A GILLARD government would offer farmers a new way to earn money by awarding credits for storing carbon in trees and reducing greenhouse emissions from livestock and the land.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will legislate rules for credits that could be sold on international or domestic carbon markets.
It will effectively bring forward a part of the emissions trading scheme agreed to by Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull last December, before Tony Abbott became leader.
Advertisement: Story continues belowThe government estimates the carbon farming scheme could earn farmers $500 million by 2020, and reduce national emissions by 21 million tonnes over the next four years.
Ms Gillard will argue the scheme would be more fiscally responsibly and more lucrative for farmers than the Coalition's proposal to use part of a $3.2 billion fund to pay $8-10 per tonne of carbon stored in soil.
Carbon credits are trading for about $18 a tonne on international markets.
The Carbon Farming Initiative would cost $45.6 million, drawn from a renewable energy fund announced in the May budget, with details to come next year.
