Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative—Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Using Measurement and Models) Methodology Determination 2021 (Cth)

Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative—Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models) Methodology Determination 2021

I, Angus Taylor, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, make the following legislative instrument.

Dated: 1 December 2021

Angus Taylor Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction

Contents Part 1—Preliminary 1 Name 2 Commencement 3 Authority 4 Duration 5 Definitions 6 References to factors and parameters from external sources Part 2—Soil carbon projects 7 Soil carbon projects Part 3—Project requirements Division 1—General 8 General 9 Project area and eligible land 10 Activities to be conducted 11 Activities not to be conducted 12 Restricted activities 13 Land management strategy 14 Information to be included in applications relating to the project 15 Operation of soil carbon projects Division 2—Additionality 16 Newness requirement Part 4—Net abatement amount Division 1—Preliminary 17 Operation of this Part 18 Overview of gases accounted for in abatement calculations Division 2—Calculation of net abatement amount—general 19 Overview 20 The net abatement amount, A 21 The net abatement amount for a project area for a non-transferring project, APA 22 The net abatement amount for a project area for a transferring project, APA 26 The total emissions for a project area for a project, Part 5—Reporting, record-keeping, notification and monitoring requirements Division 1—Offsets report requirements 31 Operation of this Division 32 Information that must be included in offsets reports Division 2—Notification requirements 33 Operation of this Division 34 Notification requirements Division 3—Record‑keeping requirements 35 Operation of this Division 36 Record‑keeping requirements Division 4—Monitoring requirements 37 Operation of this Division 38 Monitoring requirements 39 Project monitoring—livestock 40 Project monitoring—assumed baseline for livestock 41 Project monitoring—land management strategy 42 Consequences of not meeting requirement to monitor certain parameters Part 6—Partial reporting 43 Partial reporting Part 7—Calculation of Emissions Division 1—Preliminary 44 Simplified outline of this Part 45 Definitions 46 Application of this Part to CEAs and emissions accounting areas in a project area Division 2—Calculating average annual baseline emissions for a project area 47 Average annual baseline emissions for a project area 48 Livestock emissions—if historical stock rate data is known 49 Livestock emissions—if historical stock rate data is not known 50 Synthetic fertiliser emissions 51 Lime emissions 52 Residue, tillage and soil landscape modification emissions 53 Irrigation energy emissions Division 3—Calculating average annual project emissions for a project area 54 Average annual project emissions for a project area 55 Livestock emissions 56 Synthetic fertiliser emissions 57 Lime emissions 58 Residue, tillage and soil landscape modification emissions Division 4—Calculating change in emissions 60 Change in project emissions from baseline in a reporting period Schedule 1—Measurement-only approach to estimating soil organic carbon sequestration Division 1—Preliminary 1 Simplified outline of this Schedule 2 Definitions 3 What is a sample? Division 2—Operation of a soil carbon project using a measurement-only approach under this Schedule 4 Steps involved in accounting for a soil carbon project 5 Carbon estimation areas (CEAs), exclusion areas and emissions accounting areas 6 Sampling design 7 Sampling 8 Sample analysis Division 3—Working out the change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 9 Working out the change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA Division 4—Working out the soil organic carbon stock and sampling variance for a CEA 10 Working out the soil organic carbon stock for a CEA and sampling variance Subdivision 1—Working out the soil organic carbon stock in a sample using an equivalent soil mass for a CEA 11 Steps for working out the soil organic carbon stock in a sample 12 Determining Equivalent Soil Mass (ESM) from the soil masses derived during the baseline sampling round 13 Working out the soil organic carbon stock in each layer Subdivision 2—Working out the soil organic carbon stock and variance for a CEA where both compositing of cores across strata and equal area stratification are used 14 Application of this Subdivision 15 Mean soil organic carbon stock in a CEA 16 Sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA 17 Total soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 18 Sampling variance of the total soil organic carbon stock for a CEA Subdivision 3—Working out the soil organic carbon stock and sampling variance for a CEA in all circumstances other than when compositing of cores is across equal area strata 19 Application of this Subdivision 20 Mean soil organic carbon stock in a stratum 21 Sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a stratum 22 Mean soil organic carbon stock in a CEA 23 Sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA 24 Total soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 25 Sampling variance of the soil organic carbon stock for a CEA Division 5—Working out the creditable change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 26 Working out the creditable change in soil organic carbon stock in a CEA for a reporting period 27 Change in carbon stock between sampling rounds 28 Standard error for change in soil organic carbon stock 29 Degrees of freedom for a CEA between sample rounds 30 Degrees of freedom associated with a sampling round () for a CEA where composite samples were collected across equal area strata 31 Degrees of freedom associated with a sampling round () for all other cases 32 Change in soil organic carbon stock in the CEA with a specified probability of exceedance for a reporting period Schedule 2—Hybrid approach to estimating soil organic carbon sequestration Division 1—Preliminary 1 Simplified outline of this Schedule 2 Definitions 3 What is a sample? Division 2—Operation of a soil carbon project under this Schedule Subdivision 1—Operation of Division 4 Operation of a soil carbon project Subdivision 2—Project accounting 5 Steps involved in accounting for a soil carbon project 6 Carbon estimation areas (CEAs), exclusion areas and emissions accounting areas 7 Sampling design 8 Sampling 9 Sample analysis Division 3—Working out the change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 10 Working out the change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA Division 4—Working out the soil organic carbon stock and sampling variance for a CEA Subdivision 1—Area, soil mass and estimation approaches for the calculation of soil organic carbon stock and sampling variance for a CEA 11 Working out the soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 12 Working out the sampling variance of soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 13 Determining Equivalent Soil Mass (ESM) from the sampled soil masses derived during the baseline sampling round 14 Approaches for estimating mean soil organic carbon stock and its sampling variance and degrees of freedom in a CEA Subdivision 2—Measurement-based soil organic carbon stock estimation and its sampling variance for the CEA for each estimation event 15 Working out the soil organic carbon stock of each sample in each layer 16 Mean soil organic carbon stock in a stratum 17 Area-weighted mean soil organic carbon stock in a CEA 18 Sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a stratum 19 Sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA 20 Degrees of freedom for the sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA Subdivision 3—Model-only soil organic carbon stock estimation and its sampling variance for the CEA for each estimation event 21 Working out the modelled soil organic carbon stock in each layer of each stratum 22 Mean modelled soil organic carbon stock in a CEA 23 Extrapolated bias-adjustment of the modelled soil organic carbon stock within a CEA 24 Extrapolated estimate of the sampling variance of mean carbon stocks in the CEA 25 Degrees of freedom for the sampling variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA Subdivision 4—Model-assisted soil organic carbon stock estimation and its sampling variance in the CEA for each estimation event 26 Application of this subdivision 27 Working out the modelled soil organic carbon stock in each layer of each stratum 28 Mean modelled soil organic carbon stock in a CEA 29 Working out the modelled soil organic carbon stock for each model-validation site 30 Mean modelled soil organic carbon stock for each model-validation site in a stratum 31 Working out the soil organic carbon stock of each model-validation site in each layer 32 Mean soil organic carbon stock in a stratum from model-validation samples 33 Area-weighted mean soil organic carbon stock in a CEA from model-validation samples 34 Variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a stratum from model-validation samples 35 Variance of the mean soil organic carbon stock within a CEA from model-validation samples 36 Sampling fraction in each stratum 37 Sampling density weighting in each stratum 38 Area-weighted mean of the modelled carbon stocks at sample sites 39 Regression coefficient for the modelled and sampled carbon stocks in the CEA 40 Regression estimate of carbon stocks in the CEA 41 Variance of the modelled soil organic carbon stock within a stratum 42 Covariance of the sampled and modelled soil organic carbon stocks in each stratum 43 Regression estimate of sampling variance of mean carbon stocks within a stratum 44 Regression estimate of sampling variance of mean carbon stocks in the CEA 45 Degrees of freedom for the regression estimate of sampling variance of mean carbon stocks in the CEA 46 Bias of the carbon stock estimation in the CEA 47 Correlation of the sampled and modelled soil organic carbon stocks for the CEA 48 Fraction of sampling variance in the CEA Division 5—Working out the creditable change in soil organic carbon stock for a CEA 49 Working out the creditable change in soil organic carbon stock in a CEA for a reporting period 50 Change in carbon stock between estimation events 51 Standard error for change in soil organic carbon stock 52 Degrees of freedom for a CEA between estimation events 53 Change in soil organic carbon stock in the CEA with a specified probability of exceedance for a reporting period