An important change has come to Alberta's carbon offset system. Farmers must be registered with an aggregation company prior to May 1st 2018 or they will not be able to claim credits for the 2018 year for the Conservation Cropping protocol, the main offset of use to farmers currently. This is a significant change from previous years. In the past, farmers could pick an aggregator and supply records to them later in the year.

This year, farmers will need to sign up with an aggregator by May 1st to report the land locations that they are planning to manage as No Till. If changes in tillage occur during the year, these areas can be deducted at a later date.
Alberta Environment and Parks set the rules for the offset system and are changing to greater pre planning in the entire Alberta carbon system.

For more information you can contact an aggregation company, or check the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry website for information on this and other offset related information: www.agriculture.alberta.ca/agcarbonoffsets
Current Aggregation companies as of February 5th, 2018:

AgriTrend Aggregation: 1-877-276-7526
Carbon Credit Solutions: 1-855-980-8887
Farmers Edge: 1-866-724-3343

The Carbon Competitiveness Incentive Regulation (CCIR) replaced the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) on Jan 1, 2018.

Paul Jungnitsch, Carbon Offset Agrologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, last updated February 2018

For more information contact the Ag-Info Centre at 310-FARM (3276) or Paul Jungnitsch at 780-427-3801