Viterra plans to offer cash or company credit to eligible Alberta farmers in exchange for their carbon credits.
The Regina grain company on Wednesday officially launched its new carbon credit program, extending its offer to Alberta farmers who use reduced- or no-till cropping practices that help sink atmospheric carbon into agricultural soils, thus reducing excess greenhouse gases.
The company, which launched the program to farmers earlier this week with advertisements in Alberta Farmer Express and elsewhere, said farmers can either elect to be paid in cash, or, “for a limited time,” get extra value by putting their credits toward purchases on their tabs with Viterra.
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The company said it will help farmers develop their individual carbon offset project plans and register their credits. “We will work one-on-one with our customers to capture the most value for their carbon credits,” senior vice-president George Prosk said in a release.
Viterra invited farmers to call its toll-free line or visit the nearest of the company’s 100-plus locations in the province.
The company’s announcement comes as the federal government takes the first steps toward establishing a regulatory framework for a nationwide carbon offset market.
Alberta is considered by observers to be out ahead of other provinces and regions in developing its own registry of that province’s greenhouse gas reduction projects, allowing Alberta industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy credits, cut their emissions or pay into a provincial climate change technology fund.
Aggregated credits
For example, an Alberta company, Emission Credit Corp. (ECC), last week announced it had reached a deal to sell about 400,000 tonnes equivalent in offset credits to power generation company TransAlta for an undisclosed per-tonne price.
ECC is an aggregator company, which collects individual farmers’ offset credits from a particular management practice and aggregates them into a larger single project for the purpose of marketing the offset credits involved.
“This is a smart business decision for our company, as the purchase of offsets fits well with our strategy of immediately offsetting the environmental impacts of our existing operations while pursuing new clean fuel technologies and investing in renewable energy,” TransAlta vice-president Don Wharton was quoted as saying in ECC’s release.
“This transaction creates significant savings for us while ensuring that there is a real reduction in greenhouse gases.”
