Today at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, Australia joined a French-led initiative to reduce global emissions and boost agricultural production by improving soil health.
Soil carbon has an important role to play in global emissions reduction efforts and offers the potential co-benefits of improved soil health and productivity.
This is why the Australian Government is very pleased to support the Four per 1000: soils for food security and climate initiative.
This initiative recognises the immense value of our soils.
Australia is actively working to better realise the value of our soils and has invested over $25 million to date on research.
We are also one of the only countries in the world to provide incentives for soil carbon improvement projects, which we do through our Emissions Reduction Fund.
Through the Emissions Reduction Fund the Government has contracted around eight million tonnes of soil carbon abatement. This equates to approximately $100 million based on the average contract price.
This provides a glimpse of the potential of soil carbon as an opportunity to achieve cost-effective emissions reductions.
Earlier this year, Australia became one of the first countries in the world to measure and report soil carbon in our national greenhouse gas inventory.
(ENDS)