Opportunity or threat for the food and agriculture sector?
Identifying opportunities related to a well-designed carbon price
rather than dwelling on potential negative implications were discussed
in a panel at last week’s Carbon Expo in Melbourne. Deborah Kerr,
Manager for Natural Resource Management from Australia's National
Farmers Federation, talked about their members looking for opportunities
to increase productivity based on
carbon management. Initiatives
leading to better soil health and therefore higher productivity and less
cost for fertiliser, such as increasing soil carbon, are popular with
farmers. Overall, she sees a great opportunity for farmers in the Carbon
Farming Initiative.
“More food – fewer emissions” was the key message from Jack
Holden, Sustainability Strategy Manager at Fonterra. To achieve this,
Fonterra is working closely with their farmers to identify profitable
options to reduce the “on farm” contribution. Jack explained how
Fonterra supports its farmers in identifying energy savings options in
the milking shed and how results from the Dairy Australia carbon
footprinting project that was undertaken by PE INTERNATIONAL will help
them move beyond on their emissions reductions journey.
Olivia Tyler from Treasury Wine Estates explained their holistic
approach to carbon management both locally in Australia and globally
across the sixteen countries in which it operates. While Treasury Wine
Estates are not liable under Australia’s carbon tax, they put great
effort in reducing carbon in their products by using a full life cycle
approach. They successfully communicate their efforts through voluntary
Carbon and Water Disclosure Project reporting, as well as having
achieved the carboNZero certification for one of their wines.
Summarising
the session, Barbara Nebel from PE INTERNATIONAL commented, “It is good
to see a positive attitude towards the carbon price and that industry
focuses on the related opportunities.”
One of the other highlights of the conference was when
Australian’s Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, announced that
Australia will sign up for a second commitment to the Kyoto Protocol
which is to be discussed at global climate talks in Doha in December.
In his view the protocol, which covers less than 15 per cent of global
greenhouse gas emissions and only from developed nations, was not enough
on its own. Therefore, Australia will push for a broader deal which
will be concluded by 2015. Without taking action to reduce emissions,
the Australian economy would face a "severe economic shock" beginning in
the year 2020 and so it was better to tackle it now, said Greg Combet.
New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister Tim Groser announced at the
same time that New Zealand will not be following Australia but will
instead make voluntary pledges under the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change, meaning that New Zealand will no longer have a legal
obligation to reduce emissions.
