Australia to count camel shooting as carbon credit

Marksmen could be paid to gun down Australia's vast herds of methane-belching camels that roam the Outback in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The government has proposed such a cull be officially registered as a carbon emission cutting measure.

Australia has an estimated 1.2 million camels, the largest wild population, and considers them an enviromental menace.

The proposal, put out to public consultation this week, would permit sharpshooters to earn carbon credits for slaughtering camels. Polluters around the world could buy the credits to offset their carbon emissions. It is estimated each camel produces 100lbs of methane a year.

A bill to create a carbon credit regime went to the House of Representatives this week and is expected to become law within weeks.

Mark Dreyfus, the government's parliamentary secretary for climate change, said he hopes the proposal would wipe out wild camels in Australia.

He said: "Potentially it has tremendous merit, because feral camels are a dreadful menace across the whole of arid Australia."

First introduced in the 1840s to help explorers and pioneers travel across the arid interior, camels now cover vast tracts of the continent's parched and sparsely populated centre and west.

Camels compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water.

The government estimates camel numbers double every nine years, despite recent government-funded culls and a small export meat trade with the Middle East.