Graziers fume after carbon credit program cut

The beef industry says the federal government’s suspension of a key carbon credit method will undermine their ability to reduce emissions.

Consolidated Pastoral Company chief executive Troy Setter is disappointed by the suspension. Picture: Claudia Baxter

Graziers are fuming at the Albanese government’s decision to suspend a carbon credit method aimed at helping cattle farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The move has left the grass-fed beef producers without any industry-specific carbon abatement method, despite the sector contributing about 10 per cent of Australia’s emissions.

Industry leaders said it would undermine their ability to help the country meet its emissions reduction targets.

The Beef Cattle Herd Management method has been around since 2015 and enabled graziers to earn carbon credits for altering management practices that they could prove resulted in improved productivity and reduced emissions per tonne of meat produced.

But the government’s Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee shocked the industry on Tuesday by suspending the method immediately until September 30, at which time it would automatically sunset.

Troy Setter, chief executive of privately owned Consolidated Pastoral Company, which has more than 300,000 head of cattle, said he was disappointed with the sudden suspension of a method that had fostered increased research into how to reduce the emissions generated per kilogram of beef.

“If the method is not there it will be a challenge for Australia to meet its 2030, 2035 and 2050 emissions reduction commitments,” Mr Setter told The Australian.

“If beef cattle are one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and methane in Australia, it is essential we have this methodology.

“We’ve invested and worked with the Australian government over many years and it is unbelievably disappointing to think they will take this opportunity away from beef cattle producers and the Australian economy and the opportunity to reduce emissions.

“This is one of the bigger incentives that is accurate and achievable and available for Australian farmers to be able to participate in.”

Industry group Cattle Australia labelled the suspension a “sneaky, shortsighted betrayal” of beef producers distracted by the Christmas period.

“Clearly our federal government has no interest in achieving genuine outcomes that enhance emission offsets otherwise this ridiculous decision would never have been made,” Cattle Australia deputy chair Adam Coffey said.

“Of the 19 recognised methods for accounting for carbon mitigation, the Beef Cattle Herd Method has delivered the fourth-biggest volume of Australia Carbon Credit Units – a total of 953,241 ACCUs which equates to an offset of more than one million tonnes of emissions.”

Three companies – Consolidated Pastoral Company, Australian Agricultural Company and Paraway Pastoral Company – have been issued credits under the scheme, while others had signed up for new projects.

Existing projects registered before Tuesday will still be eligible for credits over their predetermined lifespan.

Cattle Australia urged the government to repeal its decision and instead focus on widening the scheme which it labelled an “effective financial incentive for climate abatement”.

“The decision also ignores the massive investment the Australian beef industry has made in research and development projects that have delivered new pasture species, nutritional additives and genetic technologies to help us achieve our goal of climate neutrality,” Mr Coffey said.

The suspension of the method followed a two-year periodic review by the ERAC.

A Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokeswoman said the ERAC’s review found: “reasonable evidence that the method no longer complies with the offsets integrity standards”.

In a short explanatory statement released online, the committee based its decision on two pieces of “key feedback”.

They said it was “unclear” if the method was meeting the “additionality offsets integrity standard” proving the cattle producer would have generated more emissions if they had not altered their practices.

Further, the committee also raised concerns about whether seasonal variation on a cattle herd’s emissions intensity satisfied the legislated conservativeness offsets integrity standard intended to avoid overestimation of carbon abatement projects.