Carbon

The Hub Strategic Plan details a number of key outcomes for carbon projects:

  • Common understanding of the carbon market and confidence in the system.
  • Tasmania, a leader in trees for forestry and carbon.
  • A sustainable and viable long-term forestry carbon market.
  • Robust government carbon policy.

The carbon market is a complex and fast-moving environment with significant potential. Even without a comprehensive understanding of its workings, costs, possible risks, longevity and land availability, there is cautious optimism that if Tasmania effectively harnessed the carbon market, it could significantly contribute to Australia’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions. This could also increase the perceived value of ‘timber’ and make carbon a defining aspect of Tasmania’s
identity within the nation and the world.

Realising the full potential of the carbon market in Tasmania requires focused efforts. These efforts should address the government policy framework to ensure navigability, sustainability and integrity within the rules, as well as education and awareness raising. Most importantly, collaboration with all stakeholders – First Nations people, farming communities, forest managers and industry is essential. By working together, through a shared understanding of the carbon market, robust government policies, and ensuring long-term viability, we can maximise the economic, social, and environmental opportunities and benefits that forestry carbon initiatives has the potential to provide for all stakeholders.

Hub Priority Projects

Current Projects

Carbon and Forestry: Supporting Sustainability and Viability

The project aims to support and optimise Tasmania’s carbon forestry projects beyond the first tree rotations. It focuses on assessing and addressing barriers to ACCU scheme participation, offering strategies to enhance sustainability whilst aligning with timber and biodiversity goals. The project will also examine the long-term viability of the forest carbon market, seeking to create a stable, adaptable market that can thrive over the next 30+ years.

This project builds on the work and recommendations undertaken in our previous carbon project, you can find the Final Report here. You can view a short video summary of this project from Professor Richard Eccleston here.

Completed Projects

REPORT RELEASED – 9 September 2024

Tasmanian forests and the carbon market: Barriers and opportunities

This report, produced for the Tasmania Forestry Hub, provides a timely industry perspective on Tasmania’s forest carbon market; its strengths, barriers to its expansion and strategies and reforms that will help ensure the sustainable growth of forest-carbon projects in Tasmania. In addition to providing background information on the operation of the ACCU scheme, the report also summarises the findings of an industry workshop held in Launceston in June 2024.

A key workshop finding was that while carbon credits provide an important source of additional income for approved forestry projects, the decision to invest in such projects and their ultimate viability depend largely on other factors, chiefly the commercial return on resulting forest products. The bottom line is that it is neither viable nor desirable to grow trees for carbon credits alone, but ACCUs can incentivise plantation establishment and forest management practices designed to maximise carbon storage.

Read the Final Report here.

You can view a short video summary of this project from Professor Richard Eccleston here

2023 CASE STUDY: Silvicultural interventions to improve sawlog production from Tasmanian forests

Download Case Study

This Tasmanian case study has been prepared as a supplementary report for the project Building the case for intervention to support increased sawlog production from Australia’s forests. It supports the three recommendations above along with detailing a fourth recommendation of:

4. Specialty timbers silviculture fund:
Establish a specialty timbers silviculture fund of up to $600,000 over ten years, to support fast-tracking requisite silvicultural interventions for blackwood forests and to trial commercial thinning.

2020 Climate Change and Carbon Policy Assessment report

Download Climate Change and Carbon Policy Final Report

Completed November 2020, this report details opportunities for expansion of Tasmania’s forestry sector grouped around key themes of:

  • adapting to climate change;
  • improving climate policy and carbon markets;
  • exploring bioenergy opportunities:
  • natural capital and ecosystem services.