Net zero being put out to pasture

The new sound from meat growers is one of air escaping from the net-zero bubble that had eyes bigger than its stomach and no longer is fit for purpose. The Red Meat Advisory Council has abandoned its 2030 net-zero goal and the backflip has been quickly followed by Meat and Livestock Australia. The retreat has been made to align the industry with what is currently bipartisan policy for net zero by 2050.

In short, big efforts to feed cattle seaweed and change farm practices are no longer considered sufficient to meet the more ambitious target. “We just, quite frankly, realised we’re not going to get to carbon neutral by 2030,” independent RMAC chairman John McKillop told journalists. MLA managing director Michael Crowley said growers of grass-fed beef were sick and tired of livestock being a “whipping boy” for climate change.

The timing is awkward for Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who has lost momentum with hydrogen and is struggling to move the carbon emissions savings agenda past the already difficult electricity sector to agriculture and industry.

Farmers were early adopters of net zero but now are questioning the science on cattle and the strict interpretations being imposed by a climate action establishment that would prefer the world to go vegan. Cows have been in the crosshairs because they emit high levels of methane when they burp and exhale while digesting food. The solution for climate change campaigners has been to seek to impose a limit on beef consumption to once a week, and to restrict the size of farm herds and more stringently police industry compliance to meet arbitrary emissions targets. But farmers now say the methodology being used for methane is suspect because, they believe, emissions from cattle and sheep are offset by associated carbon ­reduction from pasture regrowth on grazing lands, making the practice “climate neutral”.

The rethink on climate targets by farmers is part of a bigger trend by industry that has talked tough in public but is now in retreat on targets for legal, ethical and financial reasons. It may be too early to declare peak climate but data compiled by The Wall Street Journal in June shows the number of proxy statements containing the term net zero in the US plummeted 32 per cent compared with the same period in 2024, while mentions of “carbon neutral” fell 30 per cent. The number of documents that mentioned Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions dropped 24 per cent. Eighty per cent of sustainability executives say their companies are “adjusting” the way they talk about climate. Half the executives surveyed said they worried that talking about net-zero goals or climate targets could spark a backlash.

For Australia, beef growers have put themselves at the head of the herd.