New consortium formed to help agriculture reach net zero

Some of Australia’s best-known agriculture players, including Elders and Coles, have formed the largest cooperative research centre in Australian history.

Farmers, supermarkets and financial institutions have joined forces in a new alliance aiming to help drive Australian agriculture’s net-zero journey.

The “national flagship” Zero Net Emissions from Agriculture cooperative research centre – with a $300 million, 10-year budget – intends to act as a “honest broker” between policymakers and farmers.

More than 70 businesses and groups are part of the CRC, which has received $87 million in government funding; the rest of its budget is made up of private capital.

Interim chief executive Matthew Morell said the group “expected results” within two years.

Its immediate aim will be to create much-needed benchmarks to assess on-farm emissions footprints and, in the longer-term, developing and scaling up economically viable technologies to cut methane emissions from grazing cattle and sheep and improving crop quality and production.

Elders, Coles, Duxton Capital, Warrawagine Cattle Co., the Argyle Foods Group, Fertiliser Australia, the Bega Group, the Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Cotton Research and Development Corporation and Hort Innovation are among the 73 consortium partners.

Zero Net Emissions from Agriculture cooperative research centre interim chief executive Matthew Morell. Picture: Supplied

All six state governments and the Northern Territory, 10 universities, Indigenous organisations and smaller grower groups are also members of what is now the largest CRC in Australian history.

Top-tier partners tipped in a minimum $3 million each over a 10-year plan, with tier 2 partners paying $150,000 a year and tier 3 rates starting at $75,000 per annum.

Coles meat, deli and seafood general manager Martin Smithson said the CRC allowed the supermarket giant to collaborate with supply chain partners to help minimise its own footprint while mitigating the “environmental and social impacts of climate change.”

It was also attracted to the CRC’s “multi-stakeholder approach” to reduce emissions as Australia transitions “towards net-zero, healthy, resilient, and profitable food systems.”

Meat and Livestock Australia environmental sustainability program manager Margaret Jewell said the CRC’s work would closely align with, and help leverage, the red meat industry’s own carbon neutral by 2030 strategy and other investments.

Meat and Livestock Australia environmental sustainability program manager Margaret Jewell (left).

“MLA is excited about the potential offered by this CRC for agriculture broadly and also specifically for the red meat and livestock sector … to accelerate research and development that drives sustainability and profitability outcomes for Australian agriculture,” she said.

The Weekly Times reported last month that the government was considering whether to match the private funding and create the CRC.

In announcing the government’s funding contribution on Tuesday, Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic said Labor must now “pull out all the stops” to achieve its decarbonisation goals and needed “to mobilise Australian industry” to play its role in the transition.

Meanwhile, the research will help farmers tackle the emerging links between sustainable farming and financial markets and Labor’s yet-to-be-announced sector decarbonisation plans.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic MP. Picture: Glenn Campbell

While the CRC does not have a legislative mandate, Professor Morell said it would help “bring things together” through its influence and credibility, including on financial reporting and accounting standards that relate to emissions reduction and land use changes.