Methane emissions pledge a blow for farmers
Australia will sign up to Joe Biden’s pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent over the decade but farmers are likely to be spared measures similar to NZs ‘burp tax’.
Australia will sign up to US President Joe Biden’s global pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent over the decade but farmers are likely to be spared any legislated enforcement measures similar to New Zealand’s “burp tax”.
Multiple sources close to discussions between the government and industry say an announcement to commit to the global methane pledge is imminent, possibly as early as next week.
They said the government was eager to head to next month’s UN COP27 climate change conference in Egypt with a solid commitment to meet the pledge, which the Morrison government rejected at COP26 in Glasgow last year.
The livestock sector, mainly due to the digestive functions of cattle and sheep, is responsible for about 48 per cent of the country’s methane emissions, which make up about 25 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday flagged plans to tax from 2025 greenhouse gases produced by farm animals through burping and urinating, outraging producers. The industry’s main lobby group Federated Farmers warned the plan would “rip the guts out of small-town New Zealand’’.
Australia’s livestock sector, which aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, has argued against legislated methane targets and says it is voluntarily headed in that direction.
National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Maher fired a warning shot last Friday amid concerns from farmers that Australia would sign up to the global methane pledge. He cited street protests by Dutch farmers over their government’s plan to tackle nitrogen emissions, which locals said would lead to a loss in livestock numbers and farm closures.
“We won’t support any outcome that would lead to a reduction in livestock numbers, and we’ve had assurances from government on that front,” Mr Maher said.
“Ultimately, punitive regulatory measures in isolation only serve to provide perverse and weaker outcomes for everyone, and we do not want to see farmers protesting because they were not adequately consulted prior to the announcements of schemes that challenge their very existence.”
Tougher methane emissions targets would also capture gas companies and landfill operators, with nearly 30 per cent of methane emissions coming from the extraction, distribution and combustion of fossil fuels and more than 10 per cent from waste management services. The European Union and Quad nations have linked their strategies to slash methane with fast-tracking lower emissions across the oil and gas sectors.
Research into methane-suppressing supplements has ramped up in recent years to tackle the problem, but farmers say they are not yet commercially viable.
The Australian understands growing pressure from the Biden administration and South Pacific nations for Australia to embrace stronger climate change action on the world stage has influenced the Albanese government’s global methane pledge position.
Ten South Pacific nations, including Fiji, PNG and Samoa, are among 122 nations who have signed the non-binding pledge. While China, India and Russia are not backing the target, Egypt, Oman, Qatar and Uzbekistan have recently committed.
A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the pledge was an “aspirational, global goal rather than a binding domestic target”, which was why so many countries had “joined the effort”.
Mr Bowen – who will lead Australia’s delegation at the COP27 Sharm El-Sheikh conference alongside Assistant Climate Change Minister Jenny McAllister — previously said that as the world’s 12th largest methane-emitting country “we want to see concrete plans to work with farmers”.
“The Australian government is currently consulting across resources and agricultural sectors about signing up to the global methane pledge,” the spokeswoman said.
“The government’s reforms to the safeguard mechanism mean that our largest emitters, many of which release methane, will be required to reduce their emissions – and the Safeguard Crediting Bill … will incentivise facilities that overachieve on their reductions”.
Mr Bowen’s spokeswoman said the $15bn National Reconstruction Fund would be used to help farmers adopt new livestock feed technologies. The government has committed $8m to fast-track commercialisation of seaweed as a low-emissions feed supplement.
Anthony Lee, the head of vertically integrated beef company Australian Country Choice, urged against binding legislation and said the government must support methane-reduction technology.
“There’s a lot of people in the industry, its allied agencies, in the industry RDCs (research and development corporations) and peak bodies, who are working on methane emission reduction,” Mr Lee said.
“There’s a few major projects that, if commercialised, will see significant reductions to these target levels and beyond.
“I don’t support legislation to limit emissions. What we need is government supporting and helping the industry to invest in technology. We need the government working with us, not taxing us.”
Victorian carbon neutral cattle and sheep farmer Mark Wootton said he was “slightly nervous” that the government would make the pledge binding.
“We haven’t got the tools in the toolbox to be able to do what we need to do now, so it might be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak,” Mr Wootton said.
“If the only alternative is we have to de-stock, well I don’t know what people are going to wear and I don’t know what they’re going to eat.”
A statement released following Mr Biden’s US-Pacific Island leaders summit last month backed the pledge and said: “We urge all countries to reduce collective anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 per cent by 2030 from 2020 levels.”
Ahead of the October 25 budget, Nationals leader David Littleproud said the government must say whether farmers would be taxed for methane emissions.
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