Agriculture part of the solution, not the problem

By Jason Strong, Managing Director, MLA

This November, COP27 will get underway in Cairo, Egypt. This meeting will bring together leaders and policy makers around the world to discuss progress and next steps to halt and reverse the effects of climate change.

For the Australian red meat and livestock sector, it is an opportunity to showcase our impressive work into realising our vision to be carbon neutral by 2030, or what Meat & Livestock Australia calls CN30.

In October, there was news of the Australian government’s indication that it would sign up to US President Joe Biden’s pledge for a 30% reduction of methane outputs by 2030. It created a debate within the industry as well as outside it, but what it showed most of all was that the livestock sector is already miles ahead of that pledge.

MLA’s voluntary goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 is more ambitious than the proposed solution put forward by President Biden. The industry is also already getting results, with recent figures indicating that we have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 60% since 2005, more than any other sector in Australia.

The Australian red meat industry can contribute towards the Global Methane Pledge, especially if the industry receives the support necessary to make additional investment in the development, commercialisation and adoption of new methane reducing technology.

Most of the industry’s reductions to date have been via carbon storage in vegetation and increased efficiency. It is expected that much of the remaining net emissions reductions will be absolute reductions in methane.

Carbon neutrality should not and does not need to come at the cost of livestock numbers or land productivity. CN30 is as much about building on-farm productivity and intergenerational sustainability as it is achieving zero net emissions from red meat production in Australia.

It is important to remember that the Methane Pledge does not ask that every sector or even every country must reduce methane by 30% on 2020 levels by 2030. It is a goal designed to encourage collective action across all industries and across the globe. The pros and cons for other sectors will need to be considered, as collective action from all methane emitting industries will be required.

Australian red meat industries contribute roughly 10% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions and about two-thirds of these emissions come from cattle. Methane stemming from cattle’s natural digestion process is the beef industry’s main contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

Methane emitted from cattle are part of the natural, or “biogenic” carbon cycle and do not contribute additional net inputs to the environment, compared with emissions released in the extraction and mining of fossil fuels.

The beef industry can be helped to reduce methane emissions through funding activities aimed at fast-tracking commercialisation of methane reducing feed additives, helping producers commence emissions accounting for their farm businesses and development of emissions reduction fund methodologies (ERF) and other incentives for adoption of novel feed additives.

The Australian red meat industry has already done much of the heavy lifting on limiting carbon pollution and is on track to be carbon neutral by 2030, so we expect these positive, proactive steps our industry is taking are properly recognised and supported should Australia decide to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge.