Background
Now more than ever, the global community has an expectation that industries demonstrate practices that align with community values and benefits particularly in the food production industry. Governments around the world are incentivising industries to progress towards lower emissions and more sustainable production.
Oyster farming in Australia, has been touted as an area for climate positive investment in sustainable aquaculture practices for several reasons. First, oysters have a lower average carbon footprint than all other forms of farmed animal protein. Second, as most live oysters produced in Australia are sold domestically, the carbon footprint associated with the supply chain is relatively small. Finally oyster shells have attracted attention across industry as a possible means for producing carbon offsets for the carbon market and attracting additional revenue. The natural function of oysters as filter feeders in addition to the low-impact design and function of oyster farm infrastructure has also contributed to the discussion on the provision and valuation of the oyster industries’ ecosystem services.
The Australian seafood sector has been challenged to work towards carbon neutrality and sustainable practices with carbon neutral and sustainability goals included in industry strategic plans. Navigating the regulatory and political landscape for carbon and climate change policy and its application to the seafood industry can be challenging and overwhelming, making it difficult to identify the regulatory need, value for money, return on investment, and subsequent pathway to implementation. In addition, understanding and valuing the role of services such as nutrient removal, habitat protection, food production, genetic diversity, and socio-economic services are important in ‘proving’ sustainability claims, supporting future industry growth and will influence the ‘social licence’ of the industry in Australia.
NineSquared’s Role
The Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) on behalf of the Australian Government and Oysters Australia commissioned NineSquared to undertake an assessment of opportunities and associated value for the Australian oyster aquaculture industry in carbon neutral certification and environmental accounts. This included:
- A review of the positioning of the oyster industry in the Australian climate policy and emission reduction space.
- An analysis of the opportunity for carbon neutral certification in the Australian oyster industry
- A review of the opportunity for environmental accounting and payment for ecosystem services
As part of the review, NineSquared engaged with Oysters Australia, individual farmers, third party consultants specialising in auditing and compliance of certifications, and government representatives.
In addition to developing a report, NineSquared was tasked with developing communication material to assist in adaptation and extension of the project’s findings. The outputs included two communication handouts, an industry webinar and presentation to the NSW Oysters industry conference in May 2022.
Results and relevance
The report describes the benefits and value of both de-carbonisation and natural capital certification pathways with a specific focus on two frameworks – Climate Active and Accounting for Nature. These two frameworks were highlighted due to their robust and scientific foundation, uptake by Australian businesses and organisations (particularly regarding food production), alignment with best practice approaches, transparency, and requirement for technical assessment ensuring credibility and confidence to the market.
The report also discusses current carbon offset opportunities, highlighting the challenges in obtaining consensus regarding carbon sequestration opportunity in oyster aquaculture, and the unlikelihood that it would yield a monetary return on investment through the carbon market.
In outlining the respective pathways and carbon offset challenges, this report also identifies areas requiring further investigation to understand and quantify the carbon footprints, ecosystem services and benefits that oyster aquaculture operations provide to assist the development of ecosystem asset specific methodologies and to ensure integrity and transparency of claims more accurately.
Read the full report and communication materials on the NSW Oysters website and this article from the FRDC.
Communication handouts:
Ecosystem Services and environmental accounting for oyster farmers
Carbon Neutral Certification for Oyster Farmers
