On 20 November 2009, CO2 Australia Co. announced that the company sold to ACTEW Co. its right for CO2 emission due to eucalyptus plantation at the price of some 6.6 million dollars. ACTEW Co. is an Australian government-owned company in charge of holding national infrastructure facilities including water treatment, sewage treatment, power generation, gas distribution and telecommunications, and also in charge of their financial management. (Cf.: 30 years of CO2 emission from the plantation x unit price = 337, 000 ton/y x 30 year x 0.65 $/ton-CO2 = 6,570,000 $)

CO2 Australia Co. has developed more than 12,500 ha of eucalyptus plantation in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and West Australia. Eucalyptus is a kind of tall trees that dominate in semi-arid climate region with annual precipitation of 10 mm.

In addition to the fact that eucalyptus efficiently binds CO2, it seems very probable that oil extracted from eucalyptus leaves could be used as biofuel. In fact, eucalyptus is regarded as one of the second generation biofuel resources (including micro algae, sugarcane and eucalyptus) of Australia, and Australian government is promoting a development project for the resources, investing 14 million dollars. Incidentally, those kinds of eucalyptus leaves that are eaten by koala bears have little oil content.

Fig. Eucalyptus Plantation in the States

Sources:
http://www.ncsu.edu/bioresources/BioRes_01/BioRes_01_1/BioRes_01_1_093_115_Moghtaderi_AustralianBioresources.pdf
http://thegovmonitor.com/economy/australia-outlines-vision-for-biomass-innovation-and-energy-security-16654.html