Potential offsetting of carbon dioxide by tea trees

A major influence on climate change is Carbon dioxide. According to the intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global carbon dioxide emissions are increasing. In order to reduce carbon dioxide releases, the United Nations (UN) has implemented a carbon trading scheme that awards mining companies that offset carbon with Certified Emissions Reductions (CER) (Change, 2008). These CERs allow companies the right to emit carbon dioxide. Currently, Australia is a signatory to UN initiatives to reduce the country's carbon footprint and one aspect of this reduction has been to impose a carbon tax on mining companies (Chan, 2012) although, the Coalition Government of Australia is proposing to replace this carbon tax with a direct action plan under which 20 million trees will be planted. Those organisations that take part in this initiative would be paid to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions using this mechanism (Coalition Government 2014; Energetics, 2013).
The plan to plant large numbers of trees is based on the potential for trees to sequester carbon, and is an option for Australia companies, including mining companies, to offset their carbon footprint. For instance, in New South Wales developers have the option to offset their carbon foot under, for example, the 'Biobanking' scheme. Under this legislation developers may opt to offset the impacts of their development by various means, including planting trees. Moreover, tree planting is part of rehabilitation of Australian mining sites (Koch and Samsa 2007) and, although the primary focus for such plantings is not for carbon sequestrations it has the same benefit.
Contained within the Tweed Sands Site is a plantation of Leptospermum sp.
A project that determined the carbon sequestration that this plantation provides could be beneficial for Tweed Sands in determining the sequestration of carbon that is occurring within this tea tree plantation.
The aim of study is to estimate the benefit of carbon dioxide sequestration in the Leptospermum plantation. This would provide Tweed Sands with the benefit of the plantation as a carbon offset and would demonstrate the benefit of this plantation as an offset.