canadian producer perspectives on agricultural soil offsets: issues, opportunities and risks blair...
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![Page 1: Canadian producer perspectives on agricultural soil offsets: Issues, Opportunities and Risks Blair McClinton, PAg Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062714/56649cf95503460f949ca6d0/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Canadian producer perspectives on agricultural soil offsets:
Issues, Opportunities and Risks
Blair McClinton, PAgSaskatchewan Soil Conservation Association
Indian Head, SK, Canada
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Fearless Prediction:
Maximizing sink potential will depend on producers taking action!
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Overview
• Introduction
• Permanence
• Additionality
• Policy Interactions
• Transaction Costs
• Questions to ponder
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Introduction
• Saskatchewan has the highest level of no-till adoption in Canada (>60%)
• SSCA first approached on carbon trading - 1993• Policy development for Ag soil sinks• Helped setup soil carbon benchmark
measurement project• Established 1st pilot carbon trade in Canada
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Principles
• Atmospheric integrity– Permanence– Leakage
• Clear ownership
• Value must accrue to people taking action
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Permanence
• Biological sinks can be reversed– Some debate on how sensitive sinks are to
reversal events
• Permanence policies revolve around liability– Who will carry the liability?
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Permanence Liability Cycle
Sell Credits
Maintenance Liability
Repurchase
Credits
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Canadian Approaches
• Permanent credits with liability period– Liability transfers to seller for up to 30 yr?– Problem: not workable for farmers
• Temporary credits– Function like a lease– Liability remains with emitters– Problem: emitters don’t want liability either
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Other Approaches
• Permanent Credit with Assurance Factor – Used in Alberta regulatory system– Built-in discount to account for future losses.– Risk sharing between farmers and government
• Private Insurance
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Additionality
• Establishes baseline for business as usual practices
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Additionality = Multiple Pools
• Creating separate pools would be difficult to administer and very expensive to monitor
• Creates Perverse Incentive – Rewards late adopters– Would create have and have not producers in
the same community – Increases value of non-creditable land– Incentive for reversal events
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Canadian Solution?
• Create one pool with adoption rate discount– Administratively simple– But reduces incentive and may reduce
participation
• Periodic baseline reassessments – Increased discount rates
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25
Business As Usual (BAU)20
Baseline
15First Counting Period Baseline
10
Ratification Baseline
5
00% Baseline
BAU OffsetsGovn't of Canada
-5
-7 *Marrakesh Tonnes (source) 1990 Basline
1990
1993
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
2012
2015
Years
Mill
ion
Met
ric
Ton
nes
Tradable?
Tradable?
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Policy Interactions
• Permanence and additionality – contradictory– Permanence says risk of losing carbon– Additionality says no risk of losing carbon
• Both policies discount carbon value and increase transaction costs
• May mean soil carbon effectively has no value at the farmgate
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Competing Interests
Figure 1. Value of one tonne CO2e of soil organic nitrogen as a function of Urea price
y = 0.0592x
$0.00
$20.00
$40.00
$60.00
$80.00
$100.00
$120.00
$140.00
$0.00 $500.00 $1,000.00 $1,500.00 $2,000.00 $2,500.00
Urea ($/tonne)
Org
an
ic N
va
lue
($
/to
nn
e C
O2
e)
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Additionality Solutions?
• Look to “Net-Net” accounting rules from Marrakesh Accord
• Environmental baseline
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Transaction Costs
• Farmers likely too small to justify individual credit sales
• Aggregation businesses
• Carbon banking or pooling
• Ownership
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Verification/Validation Costs
• What level of verification is cost effective?– Aggregator data management– Farm Inspections
• Future possibilities– Remote sensing
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Questions to Ponder
• How can we resolve contradiction between permanence and additionality?
• How can we minimize transaction costs to maximize value at the farm?
Solutions to these questions will help make Ag soil offset trading a success!