Cairns Post, 16 December 2008, Derek Tipper

A Far North Queensland carbon farmer says by 2010 landowners will be able to trade credits earned for the biodiversity of their properties on the Australian emissions trading market.

The Degrees Celsius Joint venture is in the final stages of UN scrutiny for an offset product that would turn natural resource conservation into dollars for landholders in the Wet Tropics.

The Rudd Government has announced a crabon trading market with a maximum greenhouse emission cut of 15 percent by 2020, if the rest of the world signs a climate pact.

If not pact is signed, Australia will go with an unconditional 5 per cent cut.

Scientists have called for emissions cuts of up to 40 per cent to avert catastrophic cliamte change. Degrees Celsius joint venture spokesman Allan Dale said while deeper cuts would have been better for his carbon pooling joint venture, the creation of a carbon market was great news.

Mr Dale said the Wet Tropics biocarbon sequestration project was an opportunity for landholdersto be paid for not clearing their land and providce a way for households to reduce their carbon footprint.

He said the tradeable biodiversity-bassed product was created by pooling the carbon sequestered in the forest and soils of landholders.

"It is a hard line to pick how far you lead," Mr Dale said.

"The slower you go the riskier it is.

"In terms of getting the kind of landscape resilience we are aiming for, the higher the cuts the better."

The Far North Queensland company manages some 20,000 tonnes of sequestered carbon currently being verified to the UN's Climate Community and Biodiversity standard.

Mr Dale said the release of the white paper confirmed Degrees Celsius was on the right track.

The Government's climate change strategy is built around reducing Australia's carbon pollution, adpating to unavoidable climate change and helping to shape a global solution.

Degrees Celsius - Providing a Local Solution

Dr Dale believes Terrain's partnership with environmental services business BIOCARBON holds the answer to the carbon-to-cash conversion for the region.

"We are hoping to make it easy and simple for people in the region who sequester carbon, for example people who have reforested their land, to enter the carbon trading market," Dr Dale said.

"There are a lot of landholders who have planted a couple of hectares of land and on their own it's too small a package to offer to the market."

"We want to package all those potential carbon credits on the supply side and then broker them to the market."

For more information about Degree Celsius contact Terrain on (07) 4043 8000.