The CFI (Carbon Farming Initiative) legislation hasn't been rubber stamped yet although it's pretty much sure that it will pass Parliament.
The published claims about the CFI are that it is for farmers and other agriculturalists to create and manage soil carbon projects and related projects, to generate voluntary carbon credits.
The idea is supposedly that private enterprise such as agribusinesses will jump on board and soon be trading credits.
Here is the reality.
There is no market for voluntary credits, and the typical value of such a credit is somewhere between 1 and 5 dollars.
CO2 is excluded as a type of emission for most types of CFI project. Thus the main GHG to be reduced can't earn you credits.
The CFI is a mishmash of IPCC "data" and "guidelines" and the earlier work done for Rudd's scheme.
In practice, there are not going to be a lot of profitable schemes under the CFI. I am absolutely sure a wave of dodgy get rich quick projects will leap up, and Their ABC will cheerfully report on their beginnings- whilst quietly burying the news of their failure.
A multimillion dollar project, as most are, is not going to be viable if as is likely most of the projects only produce minimal emission reductions.
Then there is the issue of why the government and the DCCEE are adversarial to private enterprise getting involved whilst at the same time giving money to the chosen few to make their own projects. Patronage by this terrible government is the last straw.
Also the credits from the schemes the government backs are assigned to the government and its cronies, allowing them to trade during the three years when no one else is allowed to. That seems corrupt to me.
Because the government backed projects don't need to be commercially viable their credits are basically being generated by the government money paid to the project managers. This also seems to indicate that those who see carbon credits as an attempt to create new fiat currency are correct.
