Ensure your stubble retention project meets requirements Stubble retention projects can be established in CEAs where more than 30% of crop residues were burned or baled, and the area was cropped in each year, over the five-year baseline (Section 22). During a stubble retention project, crop residues may only be removed from the CEA once every five years (Section 39). Ensure your conversion to pasture project meets requirements Conversion to pasture management actions (Sections 40–42) are similar, but not identical, to those for pasture renovation management actions carried out under a sustainable intensification project (see Sections 37–39). Pasture renovation within sustainable intensification vs conversion to pasture project management activities Planting vigorous grasses makes pastures more productive, while at the same time sequestering more carbon as biomass (fine roots and leaves) than when land is continuously cropped. If you renovate pastures within a sustainable intensification project management activity (Section 36): The CEA must have been under pasture for at least two years before applying for the project. You must have one other sustainable intensification management action running in the CEA at the same time. If you conduct a conversion to pasture project management activity (Section 40): The CEA must not have been under pasture, but have been either bare ground or under crops during the five-year baseline. A written pasture renovation strategy and seeding to create permanent pasture apply to both projects. Calculate emissions baseline The emissions baseline represents what would happen if your project did not occur. The emissions baseline provides a point against which you measure any changes in the amount of emissions produced by a project in a reporting period. You use this change in emissions to calculate net abatement. For soil carbon projects, the emissions baseline is the amount of emissions expected or calculated from the alternative scenario before the project starts. The baseline is calculated over the ‘baseline emissions period’, which is usually the five years before the project starts. Sources and sinks of carbon described by the greenhouse gas assessment boundary are given in Section 46. However, only baseline emissions from livestock on pasture, synthetic fertiliser and crop residues need to be calculated for a soil carbon project, as shown in Table 2. Baseline lime and irrigation energy use are considered to be zero for soil carbon projects.
Table 2: Summary of livestock, synthetic fertiliser and crop residue baseline calculations that must be calculated for different project management activities and management actions Project management activity Baseline emissions calculation Sustainable intensification Stubble retention Conversion to pasture Livestock Livestock baseline A or B as applicable (Section 55) Not calculated Livestock baseline A or B as applicable (Section 55) Synthetic fertiliser Synthetic fertiliser baseline A or B as applicable (Section 59) Synthetic fertiliser baseline A or B as applicable (Section 59) Synthetic fertiliser baseline A or B as applicable (Section 59) Crop residue Pasture renovation actions—use residue baseline A (Sections 62, 63) Project CEAs under crops—use residue baseline B (Sections 62, 64) Residue baseline A (Sections 62, 63) Residue baseline C (Sections 62, 65) Figure 2: Calculating livestock baseline for each carbon estimation area Figure 3: Calculating livestock baseline for each carbon estimation area Figure 4: Calculating synthetic fertiliser baseline for each carbon estimation area Figure 5: Calculating crop residue baseline for each carbon estimation area
What’s tCO2-e? CO2-e expresses the warming effect of different greenhouse gases as an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. It is the amount of carbon dioxide that would give the same warming effect as each greenhouse gas that is emitted or stored by an activity. For example, methane (CH4) has a Global warming potential (GWP) of 25, which means 1 tonne of CH4 is 25 tonnes of CO2-e. Only those greenhouse gases from emissions sources outlined in Section 46 are included when calculating CO2-e for a soil carbon project. For each CEA, identify which emissions sources listed in Sections 67–71 are relevant to your project. Use the equation trees in Figure 6 to calculate project emissions from livestock, synthetic fertiliser, lime, crop residues and irrigation energy use. If the project is a sustainable intensification project and irrigation is chosen as the management action, calculation of irrigation energy use is compulsory (Section 71).