Land Based
Extensive experience over 20+ years of land-based sectors and the interaction with climate change science, policy and practice
This experience is built upon both rural experience and education in sustainable agriculture, land management and landscape rehabilitation
Avoided Deforestation
Our Director was a director of the company that completed the Queensland avoided deforestation project, “Minding the Carbon Store”
This multi-million dollar project:
- was an Australian first and appears to be a world-first project model (it is at the least, one of very few at the time)
- stopped land clearing without needing to buy the land or move people from the area, instead changing behaviour through the use of carbon finance
- prevented 1,250,000 tonnes of emissions from being released from the vegetation that would have otherwise been knocked down
- was, at the time, Australia’s largest carbon trade
- saved approximately 13,000 ha of biologically diverse habitat from being cleared, the carbon remaining in the landscape and underpinning the ecosystem
- was a finalist in both the Banksia Awards and the United Nations Association Climate Change Awards
The project bought land clearing permits, generated verified emission reductions and sold the accredited Greenhouse Friendly™ abatement
- It used carbon finance to pay landholders to not clear their land, to extinguish their land clearing permits prior to the Queensland Government’s mandated land clearing moratorium came into effect; other landholders were actively clearing land in the lead up to the moratorium as it became illegal to do so after that
- Greenhouse Friendly™ was the Australian Government’s voluntary carbon offset and carbon neutral program, long before the current Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and Climate Active
- Greenhouse Friendly™ was established in 2001 and replaced by the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) in 2010
- NCOS was replaced by Climate Active which is active today
- The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) oversees ACCUs (Australian Carbon Credit Units) which are financial products that operate within Australia’s compliance carbon market
- Greenhouse Friendly™ carbon units are no longer available; we sell Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), which are eligible under Climate Active
“Minding the Carbon Store” demonstrated that market mechanisms and verified emission reductions can stop forest destruction; a model now promoted internationally
- You can buy REDD+ projects through the Beyond Neutral Carbon Shop; these projects use a similar conceptual model
Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)
Wide ranging AFOLU experience spans both international and Australian carbon sequestration over two decades
International
Contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), chapter 2 “Implications of Different Definitions and Generic Issues”, published in 2000
- Provided technical and editorial input, review, analysis and comment on various chapters in the IPCC Special Report on LULUCF, in addition to being a Contributing Author to Chapter 2
Developed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) case studies using hypothetical scenarios and/or based on real projects
- covering avoided deforestation, plantation forestry, revegetation and catchment scale projects
- provided to the Australian and USA governments for COP6 (the sixth UNFCCC Conference of the Parties)
Developed CDM “Step-by-Step Guide” for use by Australia and the international community prior to COP 6
Used remote sensing data and various land-cover criteria to undertake an analysis of the percentage of forest captured by various forest cover criteria
Researched the biomass carbon content across latitudes/ countries/ vegetation types, as well as rates of ARD (Af/Re/Deforestation)
Australia
Part of a consultancy looking at the carbon farming potential of indigenous lands across Australia
- coordinated the scientific input from the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting
Reviewing and providing advice on an Australian offset project’s Eligibility Statement, Emission/ Abatement Study and Project Management Plan prior to submission
- Following incorporation of our advice, the project was successfully verified with no major or minor corrective action requests
Commissioned to undertake a rapid assessment of the usability of Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System’s (NCAS) Toolbox and FullCAM
Review of agriculture sector’s involvement within the Australian Government’s voluntary Greenhouse Challenge and Greenhouse Allies programs
- these were emissions reporting and climate action programs
- included dairy and rice farmers, fruit and vegetable growers and processors, plus a farmers’ representative body and a landscape remediation group
- Went on to review the performance of the whole Greenhouse Allies program covering amongst others, a State based wine manufacturers’ association and sequestration projects across two regions
Reviewed nine Australian agricultural processing sectors’ industrial wastewater treatment and methane recovery data for the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory
We’ve presented to agricultural and forestry organisations on issues of carbon sequestration and the creation of carbon credits, including
- Soil carbon and its role and applicability in future emissions trading systems
- Options and requirements for carbon trading from farm forestry derived
- Carbon trading, accreditation of bio-sequestration and the science of climate
- Climate change action options for municipal councils, regional development authorities and natural resource management groups
Beyond Neutral was one of only five accredited independent verification companies in Australia able to verify projects in the Land Use Change and Forestry sector for Greenhouse Friendly™
