Winter
2016
Grains
West
38
Debate continues over themerits of Alberta’s
agricultural offsets market
BY KELSEY JOHNSON • PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRYCE MEYER AND LEAP FROG PHOTOGRAPHY
Feature
N 2007, AMID GROWING
pressure to address mounting
concern around climate change,
the Alberta government created a
system of agricultural carbon offsets
designed to help farmers voluntarily
lower their carbon footprint. The
offsets were included as part of a broad
government response to Alberta’s
contribution to climate change, with
the goal of reducing emissions from the
province’s high-polluters, including oil
and gas.
Yet, nearly 10 years later, questions
about the system’s effectiveness remain.
The system works like this: producers
who reduce carbon emissions through
various government-approved
practices—like no-till farming and
biodigesters—are eligible for a carbon
credit that can be traded on a provincial
carbon market.
“I tell farmers it’s basically just another
market,” said Paul Jungnitsch, a carbon
offset agrologist with Alberta Agriculture
and Forestry. “It’s an environmental
market, so it’s different from selling grain
or dairy or whatever, but really it’s just
another market.”
Third-party aggregators are tasked
with collecting the necessary paperwork
and assist with the sale of the credits,
with a set price maximum of $15 per
tonne. Large companies whose emission
levels are regulated by the province
are then able to purchase those credits
as a means of counteracting their own
emitter status. The province made it a
requirement that the offset credits be
Alberta-made.
I
CARBON CONUNDRUM
“What the offset system does is it
allows the smaller players that also
contribute to reducing the carbon
emissions total to contribute, and they
can sometimes reduce carbon by a
cheaper cost,” Jungnitsch explained.
“So, what it gives them is one more
option in the big, grand scheme of
reducing Alberta’s carbon emissions.”
The system is the first of its kind,
Jungnitsch said—developed at a time
when Alberta was facing sharp criticism
internationally for its contributions to
global climate change. “It’s a fairly
newish thing,” he said, noting it’s the
only one in Canada.
At first there were only two eligible
programs: the biogas offset (which
generally encompasses biodigesters)
and the energy efficiency credit.
