650 Mt CO₂-e
per year.
By 2045.
Australia exceeds its Paris commitments. The Murray-Darling Basin sequesters 650 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent every year, which is more than the country's entire 2050 net-zero target of 465 Mt. Combined with the emissions reductions from the rest of the policy suite, the policy stack delivers approximately twice the 2050 net-zero requirement.
The mechanism, plain
Across 100 million hectares of the Basin, restored grasslands and wetlands sequester 4.67 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year, totalling 467 Mt. Feral-animal control — culling one million pigs and one million deer over fifteen years — removes a further 183 Mt of methane and grazing emissions. Total: 650 Mt per year by 2045.
What it costs
The cost is $208 billion in core spending plus $42 billion of contingency — $250 billion in total, all from the Sovereign Wealth Fund. This compares to the approximately $650 billion of public and private spending committed under the previous renewables-and-offsets strategy that DCCEEW's own modelling projected would still leave a 165–215 Mt shortfall by 2050.
The BSS has employed approximately 70,000 rural workers in environmental and ecological roles.
The 650 Mt p.a. headline is calibrated against Australia's 2050 net-zero pathway. Against a national 2050 requirement of 465 Mt per year, the Basin Sequestration Strategy alone produces a surplus of approximately 185 Mt — and the rest of the policy suite (electrified rail replacing diesel freight, CANDU power retiring coal-fired electricity) carries that surplus higher still. The current Australian climate framework is rated "Insufficient" by the Climate Action Tracker. The policy package described here carries that rating to "Sufficient" or better.