Climate change
Agriculture and climate change
On November 25, the Federal Government announced amendments to its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Key points for agriculture are:
This is the single largest economic reform that Australia has ever seen, and primary producers will still face an exponential increase in the price of anything used on-farm which is energy intensive, particularly fertiliser, steel, electricity,and fuel.
Until now, much of the debate has been focused on whether or not agriculture is covered in the ETS – now, we can put that issue to bed and focus on the next steps from here, and start identifying opportunities.
The simple message is that the agricultural sector needs to find ways in which landholders can off-set the increasing input costs and other supply chain costs which will be passed back to them.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and countries across Europe have already ruled out covering their direct agricultural emissions under a cap and trade system and AgForce believes a level playing field is a minimum requirement for any Australian emissions trading scheme regarding the treatment of agriculture.
AgForce believes in light of the international policy frameworks, the Australian Government must now adopt an alternate, but consistent, approach of providing farmers with incentive-based means of reducing emissions. This would be predominately through the availability of offsets through carbon capture and storage.
AgForce will continue to work with the technical working groups that we are already a part of and we will continue to support and endorse the research capacities that we are already involved in.
AgForce has been running carbon workshops across the state throughout 2009 which have been very productive and strongly supported by landholders. Moving forward, the best thing that individual producers can do is ensure they understand the ‘emissions trading language’ and identify where offset opportunities may be so that when an opportunity presents itself they can position themselves, and their enterprise, in the best way.
Want more information?
AgForce senior policy officer – environment, Drew Wagner answers some of the key questions in the carbon debate:
How did we arrive at this point in the CPRS debate?
What is the ETS and how does it work?
How would an ETS affect agriculture in the global marketplace?
Why the emphasis on Copenhagen 2009?
On November 25, the Federal Government announced amendments to its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Key points for agriculture are:
- Exclusion of the direct emissions from agriculture under the CPRS cap
- Assistance to agricultural processors
- Additional R&D for agricultural abatement
- A commitment to a carbon offset mechanism to encourage positive action from farmers
This is the single largest economic reform that Australia has ever seen, and primary producers will still face an exponential increase in the price of anything used on-farm which is energy intensive, particularly fertiliser, steel, electricity,and fuel.
Until now, much of the debate has been focused on whether or not agriculture is covered in the ETS – now, we can put that issue to bed and focus on the next steps from here, and start identifying opportunities.
The simple message is that the agricultural sector needs to find ways in which landholders can off-set the increasing input costs and other supply chain costs which will be passed back to them.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and countries across Europe have already ruled out covering their direct agricultural emissions under a cap and trade system and AgForce believes a level playing field is a minimum requirement for any Australian emissions trading scheme regarding the treatment of agriculture.
AgForce believes in light of the international policy frameworks, the Australian Government must now adopt an alternate, but consistent, approach of providing farmers with incentive-based means of reducing emissions. This would be predominately through the availability of offsets through carbon capture and storage.
AgForce will continue to work with the technical working groups that we are already a part of and we will continue to support and endorse the research capacities that we are already involved in.
AgForce has been running carbon workshops across the state throughout 2009 which have been very productive and strongly supported by landholders. Moving forward, the best thing that individual producers can do is ensure they understand the ‘emissions trading language’ and identify where offset opportunities may be so that when an opportunity presents itself they can position themselves, and their enterprise, in the best way.
Want more information?
AgForce senior policy officer – environment, Drew Wagner answers some of the key questions in the carbon debate:
How did we arrive at this point in the CPRS debate?
What is the ETS and how does it work?
How would an ETS affect agriculture in the global marketplace?
Why the emphasis on Copenhagen 2009?