THE federal Agriculture Minister says farmers will not be subject to taxes to reduce livestock emissions after the Commonwealth Government signed the global pledge to cut methane emissions by 2030.
Murray Watt said the pledge would put the agriculture sector on a level playing field with trade competitors in a market which required a stronger commitment to sustainability.
“This commitment will help ensure ongoing access to international markets for our $24 billion livestock and dairy industry,” Mr Watt said after announcing the signing announced on Sunday afternoon.
“The pledge does not require reduced herd sizes and we will not legislate taxes or levies to reduce livestock emissions.”
The Global Methane Pledge was launched in 2021 by world leaders asking participants to take voluntary actions to reduce global methane emissions by at least 20 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030.
Australia joins 122 nations which have signed on to the measure which aims to reduce 0.2 degrees celsius of warming by 2050.
The pledge also projects that it will prevent 255,000 premature deaths each year, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labour from extreme heat, and 26 million tonnes of crop losses globally.
Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but is more than 25 times as potent as CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Mr Watt said modelling estimated that changes in seasonal conditions had reduced annual average farm profits by $29,200 per farm between 2001 and 2020.
National Farmers Federation president Tony Mahar said the announcement reinforced agriculture’s commitment to sustainability and “ongoing access to key markets as an export-oriented sector”.
Mr Mahar said understood concerns among farmers about the pledge but that he had been given “assurances” of “no new taxes or regulation on livestock methane, and no reduction to agricultural production nor livestock numbers”.
The Australian Red Meat Industry welcomed the signing and said it was “well advanced” in its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.
The council said it has reduced its net emissions by almost 60 per cent since 2005.
Farmers for Climate Action chief executive Fiona Davis said the government had assured the industry it would work with oil and gas sectors to reduce methane and that the target would not be legislated nor binding.
The prospect of signing the pledge has drawn criticism from Mallee MP Anne Webster who said it could lead to “higher prices at the supermarket” and threatened the “good old Aussie barbecue”.
Dr Webster said New Zealand’s plan to legislate emissions would tax farmers and make meat “unaffordable”.
The New Zealand government drew criticism after it introduced a farm levy as part of its pledge to make the country carbon neutral by 2050.
The Arden government included a pledge to reduce methane emissions from farm animals by 10 per cent by 2030 and by up to 47 per cent by 2050.
The government planned to price agriculture emissions by 2025 which farmers would be liable to pay.
