Carbon farming: Heavy reliance on offsets is ‘unhealthy’

Industry leaders are calling for strategies that tackle carbon emissions to be suitable for both corporate businesses and family farms.

A collaborative approach between government and producers in developing strategies to reduce carbon emissions across the agriculture industry is essential, industry leaders say.

West Australian dairy farmer Jacqui Biddulph, who runs Kerridge Farm Pty Ltd with her husband about three hours southwest of Perth, has employed various strategies and technologies over the past decade in a bid to decrease emissions from her business.

Speaking as a panellist at AgriFutures evokeAg conference in Perth on Tuesday, Ms Biddulph said family farms were the “backbone” of Australian agriculture, and that carbon emission reduction strategies needed to be suitable for both corporate businesses and smaller farms.

“When I’m looking at my industry, if (industry leaders) want us to be part of the solution, they need to give us the tools, the extension, the courses and prepare us for the new world in which we are going to live,” she said.

“We are relying on them to help us meet those obligations.”

Professor Richard Eckard, also speaking at evokeAg, said the industry also needed to focus on ensuring increased biodiversity on farms, rather than only planting a lot of trees.

He said a heavy reliance on sequestration, tree and soil offsets was “unhealthy”, because it meant people would just buy offsets rather than tackling their emissions.

“When you look back in history, carbon offsets were always an emergency reserve mechanism … it’snow flipped around to, this is what we do to get ourselves out of trouble,” he said.

“I’m really concerned about land use change as a result of that.

“The demand for carbon credits out of the land sector is going to be huge, and it will drive land-use change.”

Professor Richard Eckard of Melbourne University.

Earlier at AgriFutures evokeAg, Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced the launch of a $45 million partnerships and innovation grant opportunity to help innovators respond to climate change.

Agricultural Innovation Australia also announced a Beta launch of Australia’s first cross-sectoral carbon accounting engine, providing Australia with an accessible and standardised approach to carbon accounting.

Producers are invited to register their interest in trialling the beta version.

Sam Brown, Professor Richard Eckard and Aggie Reefman give an exclusive demonstration of new environmental accounting platform from the AIA. Picture: Supplied