Farmscape for August 25, 2006  (Episode 2229)

In an effort to assist farmers considering the sale of carbon offset credits, the Canadian Pork Council is distributing a nine point Carbon Credit Agreement Negotiation Checklist.

Although there is currently no federally approved carbon credit trading system in Canada, a number of producers have been approached by potential aggregators looking to purchase carbon offset credits.

Canadian Pork Council environmental programs coordinator Cedric MacLeod notes a plan for managing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions isn't expected to be released by the federal government until the fall and speculating in a market that has no legal framework established can be risky.

Clip-Cedric MacLeod-Canadian Pork Council

The check list outlines some of the main considerations that a producer should be bringing to the table if you're sitting down with an aggregator who's interested in making your credits part of his package to take to the market place.

It just, in a fairly logical manner, outlines the specific concerns that a producer might have with any new contract and gives a bit of a guideline for things to consider in the contract and also a guideline for some questions that might be asked of the aggregator.

The checklist is designed to allow a producer to establish what kind of liability is going to exist in a carbon credit trading agreement, are you actually going to be able to deliver the package of carbon that is being predicted, what are those numbers based on, is that sound Canadian science?

One of the biggest pitfalls we want producers to understand and need to look out for is, where does the liability lie if the credit package is not delivered to the market place.

MacLeod stresses, without an established system in place to approve greenhouse gas reduction projects, there is a risk that the management practices involved won't be accepted or that the quantity of credits for which they do qualify could be larger or smaller than the quantity committed for delivery.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council