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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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  • Government may exclude fuel from carbon scheme

    Mr Albanese has signalled transport must be included. But there are reports today that the Rudd Government is also considering measures to protect motorists from more petrol pain with the introduction of a price on carbon under any ETS.

    Mr Swan told Parliament today that the Government would make its own decisions on the final details of any ETS.

    “We don’t necessarily have to agree with every recommendation that is put forward by Professor Garnaut,” Mr Swan said. “We will take our decision in the national interest.”

    Queensland’s The Courier Mail newspaper reported today Labor sources had confirmed that ahead of an options paper due mid-July, cabinet had met on the issue to examine various schemes and commission work on a number of alternatives.

    Under one option being considered, the ETS would operate with a low start-up price for carbon and not include fuel transport until at least 2012.

    Mr Albanese told Parliament the transport sector, which includes fuel, could not be left out of the scheme and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong also said the broader the scheme the better.

    Invited to confirm the newspaper reports today in Parliament, Mr Albanese said he had no intention of discussing cabinet deliberations.

    “What I won’t do is discuss cabinet meetings. But my position on climate change is very clear … we will take action as we did when the first action of the Rudd government was to ratify the Kyoto protocol. We will do this to address the 12 years of inaction and denial of those opposite,” he said.

    The Australian reported today that Coalition frontbenchers are pushing for a delay in the introduction of emissions trading in a move that threatens bipartisan support for the main mechanism to cut greenhouse gases and tackle climate change.

    Kevin Rudd seized on doubts about the Opposition’s commitment yesterday to accuse it of reneging on its pre-election promise to support an emissions trading system.

    Under an emissions trading system, polluters such as coal-fired power stations that cannot meet greenhouse gas reduction targets will be forced to buy carbon credits on an open market. This is expected to force the cost of services such as electricity and transport higher as companies adapt to the new environment.

    Yesterday, opposition treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull raised the option of cutting fuel excise to compensate motorists for the introduction of any emissions trading scheme to ensure it was revenue neutral.

    He hinted he would support the inclusion of petrol however in any broadbased scheme.

    Mr Swan also quoted from international and domestic reports that the cost of not acting on climate change would be higher than the cost of taking action.

  • Carbon trading set to dominate commodities

    By Fiona Harvey in the Financial Times

    The market in greenhouse gas emissions could outstrip the conventional commodities markets to become the biggest traded commodity, the head of the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission said yesterday.

    Bart Chilton, commissioner of the CTFC, said: “The potential size and scope of a structured carbon emissions market in the US is unequivocally vast. It is certainly possible that the emissions markets could overtake all other commodity markets.”

    Carbon trading was worth about $64bn last year, according to the World Bank, but the US accounted for a small fraction of this. Most of the trading – about $50bn – was carried out under the European Union’s emissions trading scheme, with nearly all of the rest carried out under the Kyoto Protocol, which the US has not ratified.

    But Point Carbon, a carbon market analyst company, has estimated that the global carbon market could be worth more than $3,000bn in 2020 if the US were to participate, through setting up its own federal cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions and through an international agreement to succeed the Kyoto treaty.

    Mr Chilton gave a slightly more cautious view yesterday, saying: “Even with conservative assumptions, this could be a $2,000bn futures market in relatively short order.” Carbon markets also have an effect on other traded commodities such as coal, oil, gas and electricity.

    Carbon trading was set up under the Kyoto Protocol as a mechanism to help countries cut their emissions. Under cap-and-trade systems, a ceiling is placed on companies’ emissions and they can trade their unused quota with one another. This method is supposed to ensure that carbon is cut at the lowest possible cost.

    The US is moving closer to setting up a federal cap-and-trade system. An attempt last month to pass a bill for such a system fell foul of procedural obstacles, but many believe a similar bill will be brought forward again under the next president, when it is likely to have more chance of passing. Barack Obama and John McCain, the presidential candidates, both support a cap-and-trade system.

    Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

  • Farmers seek organic fertiliser solutions

    In his own work around Wee Waa, NSW, Dr Rochester has seen vetch rotations regularly fix up to 200 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare under dryland conditions—and deliver a wealth of other benefits that combined, increased gross margins by up to $540 per ha.

    “This last year we got over 5.5 bales of cotton an acre, with no nitrogen, using legume systems,” Dr Rochester said.

    Cotton grower John Phelps, who has been trialling vetch rotations on his Wee Waa property “Havana” for about six years, said he has reduced his formulated nitrogen applications by 40 per cent, and hopes to reduce it further.

    Vetch, which is grown out and then slashed and mulched into the soil as a “green manure” before it begins to hay off, has proved a stand-out soil ameliorant, but faba bean runs a handy second and provides the additional attraction of a cash crop.

    “Within a continuous cotton system where cotton was planted year after year, growing vetch reduced the amount of nitrogen fertiliser required for cotton by 140 kg per hectare to achieve maximum yields,” Dr Rochester said.

    “Coupled with increased yield, the gross margin per hectare for this system [compared to not growing vetch] was increased by $390.”

    Average nitrogen fertiliser applications in the cotton industry now stand at around 200 kilograms per hectare, and are increasing.

    Under a wheat-vetch-cotton rotation, gross margins improved by $270/ha compared to not growing vetch, with the biggest results coming in a vetch-fallow-cotton rotation that saw gross margins leap by $540/ha.

    “Although vetch is not an income producing crop itself, the $100 per hectare cost of growing it is substantially outweighed by the financial benefits accrued for the following cotton crop.”

    Those benefits cover a range of soil improvements, including and increase in soil organic matter of 14 per cent—and the annual accumulation of a tonne per hectare of total soil carbon, which itself may deliver a cash return under an emissions trading system.

    Dr Rochester attributes the jump in organic matter and carbon not just to the vetch, but a permanent-bed tillage system that minimises soil disturbance, and thus the soil nitrogen that is normally consumed when soil is turned over and microbial activity accelerated.

    The combined effect has been the improvement in a range of soil properties, including water infiltration and water-holding capacity, that collectively deliver a beneficial boost to crops.

    Following vetch, cotton crops are able to absorb greater amounts of nutrient, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and copper; while detrimental sodium uptake is reduced.

    Management also becomes easier. The interaction between plants and healthy soils tends to self-regulate the delivery of nitrogen, so that the crop isn’t hit with a nitrogen overdose if conditions start to dry out.

    “The nitrogen is in an organic form, so it’s slow release, and it cycles between organic and inorganic forms, so that its cycling more rapidly and the crop has access to the mineral nitrogen,” Dr Rochester said.

    “It all becomes less risky—you can rely on the nitrogen being there when you need it.”

    It doesn’t have the flexibility of nitrogen fertiliser, he observed, but because organic nitrogen is more stable, the last-minute rush to add N to a potentially high-yield crop may not be so necessary. However, it remains an option to those who want to capitalise on yield in a big year.

  • Farmers want governments to keep out of trough

    From The Land 

    The best policy response to food shortages is to let the market do its thing, according to the National Farmers Federation.

    Responding to the release of a new report “High Food Prices – Causes, Implications and Solutions”, NFF president, David Crombie, said if the United Nations’ stated goal of a 30pc increase in global food production by 2030 is to have any hope of coming to fruition, the paramount objective of food policy must be to encourage a workable system of production, distribution and consumption.

    “This means a global recommitment to agricultural research and development investment in pursuit of higher farm productivity – including technologies, new plant varieties, inlcuding genetically modified crops, new farming systems and irrigations systems, with a focus on climate adaptation,” Mr Crombie said.

    “Foreign govenrments must leave their domestic policies at home and once and for all abandon their trade distorting subsidies, tarrifs and other artificial barriers, which only mire production by sending the wrong market signals to farmers as food producers.”

    Mr Crombie said govenrments must not intervene to impose limits on food exports, nor distort the flow of food stocks to the production of bio-fuels.

    “The only workable policy response is to facilitate an open, market-oriented system for the production, distribution and consumption of food that enable farmers to respond to genuine market demands and ensure consumer needs are met.”

  • Fertiliser prices soar to $1600 per tonne

    The Fertiliser price hike has continued apace – and the bad news for Australian growers is that international price rises are going up faster than domestic ones.

    With most farmers already sorted for their 2008 phosphate needs, the jump of close to $200/t in phosphate (P) products such as MAP and DAP in the past three weeks will not have an impact this season, but casts a pall over their affordability in 2009.

    Although no blanket figure can be quoted – suggestions are that farmers would generally be paying $1600/t or moren for new up-country deliveries.

    Tight international supply, favourable grain prices are the drivers behind the continued demand, along with strong demand from Indian buyers.

  • NSW plans to increase train fares

    Responding to the IPART review of CityRail services, Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said today the NSW Pricing Tribunal should withdraw its call for fare increases and heavy job cuts.
     
    "IPART's recommendations of massive fare hikes and front line service sackings reveals that it has failed to understand the new priorities of regulating public transport services," Ms Rhiannon said. 
     
    "IPART should be advising the NSW government that increasing the attractiveness and reliability of CityRail services is its top priority. Increasing revenue should be a secondary priority. 
     
    “Sydney’s roads are choked. Peak hour is a thing of the past, air pollution is reaching dangerously high levels and chronic traffic congestion is making Sydney unliveable.
     
    “With rising petrol prices and the peak oil phenomenon set to boost rail service patronage the government should be looking to employ more station staff and rail workers. 
     
    “The Government must encourage more commuters onto trains, not turn them off.
     
    "The IPART recommendations include cutting operation costs by $480 million, the axing of 1,176 train guards and replacing staff at 204 of the 305 train stations with ticket machines.
     
    "Instead, IPART should be recommending a large increase in the rail budget to put CityRail on a world class footing, not relying on the traditional economic rationalist approach to drive change. 
     
    "It is disappointing that the Tribunal has given such poor advice at a time when the NSW government's public transport policy is so out of step with what passengers need. 
     
    "Everyone knows that CityRail has to lift its game but IPART has targeted the wrong areas. 
     
    "IPART has jeopardised its standing with these recommendations. They show contempt for public transport passengers and hard working CityRail staff, and a complete lack of understanding of the transport crisis that lies ahead with predicted fuel shortages. 
     
    "Fewer staff and higher ticket prices on CityRail services would hit people living in western Sydney and commuters from the Illawarra, Hunter and Central Coast particularly hard.
     
    “The Greens will be making these recommendations in our submission to the IPART review,” Ms Rhiannon said.