Matt Egerton-Warburton: Mulloon Institute director joins The Australian Ag podcast 2023

How can farmers take advantage of Australia’s rapidly developing carbon credits market, and what dangers do they need to watch for?

A leading regulatory and legislative lawyer has urged Australian farmers to keep control over their carbon credit units as the market rapidly develops.

Mulloon Institute director Matt Egerton-Warburton, a corporate partner with Gadens lawyers and chairman of the Mulloon Law Committee, has detailed how farmers can control their carbon credits as the demand for Australian Carbon Credit Units increases.

“I think it will be enormous and the sky’s the limit. When I say the sky’s the limit, it will all come down to how valuable ACCUs become,” Mr Egerton-Warburton told the The Australian Ag podcast, out today.

“If they become really, really valuable, everyone with a little bit of land will be looking at doing these projects.”

Mr Egerton-Warburton said it was important farmers interested in producing carbon credits were careful before committing to a long-term contract with a carbon service provider.

“I think it is important for farmers to control their ACCUs because you don’t know how the market is going to develop,” he said. “We could see a situation where Woolworths and Coles only want to buy from carbon-neutral farms in the future and if you have given them away then people could find it difficult.”

Mr Egerton-Warburton said he was concerned about the business model where carbon service providers took all the ACCUs and in exchange gave the farmers an income, because a third party could take control over how the property was managed.

Mulloon Institute director Matt Egerton-Warburton urged farmers to be cautious with carbon projects.

“The crunch will come when they (landholders) want to manage their land or sell their land and the carbon providers say, ‘hang on you can’t do that without my consent’,” he said.

“I’d encourage farmers to get involved, but you shouldn’t take the offer from the first person knocking at the door.

“Treat it like any other service provider. Take control of you carbon credits, don’t be a price taker and passive.”