Almost a quarter of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the agricultural sector, taking into account agriculture itself and the impact of deforestation.
In March this year, the government introduced a bill in parliament, the Carbon Farming Initiative, to offer incentives, in the form of carbon credits, to reduce these emissions in the agricultural sector. The intention is that the scheme kicks off as early as July this year.
Professor Annette Cowie is Director of the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research and part of the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee, responsible for approving the methodologies in this scheme.
In this edition of BTalk, I ask Annette how the scheme works and how much, realistically, can we reduce carbon emissions in the agricultural sector.