25th Jun 2014, 6:48 PM – Representatives Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill 2014 — Second Reading — Read a second time

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time.(Read about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the majority agree with the main idea of the bill.

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced to establish the Emissions Reduction Fund to replace the carbon price and to provide a transition for the Carbon Farming Initiative. This is a key part of the Coalition Government's Direct Action policy, which was an election commitment.

The Carbon Farming Initiative was introduced by the previous Labor Government and is a voluntary carbon offsets scheme that currently "allows farmers and land managers to earn carbon credits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (such as nitrous oxide and methane) and storing carbon in vegetation and soils through changes to agricultural and land management practices (also known as carbon farming)".

The Coalition Government supports the Carbon Farming Initiative but Minister for Environment Greg Hunt has said that it "can be better, stronger, simpler and more streamlined" (see here), which is what this bill aims to do with its changes to the approvals process and the introduction of a 25-year-long option for carbon sequestration projects (currently all projects must run for a period of 100 years).

Read more about the changes made by the bill in the bills digest.