Carbon politics has been a vexing issue for Agriculture for the best part of 30 years.
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We have seen Governments fall and various interest groups hijack the carbon debate to advance sometimes unrelated agendas.
We have seen legislators take the axe to some farmers' vegetation rights to comply with Kyoto's carbon Targets on the cheap.
NSW Farmers recently considered a motion on Net Zero Emissions by 2050 in the lead up to the NFF member Council in early August.
Our Executive Council made some pretty insightful decisions for the organisation around some "musts" when it comes to carbon and this target.
Any process to achieve carbon neutrality, economy wide, must be met with binding caveats, ensuring farmers are not the ones picking up the slack on behalf of the wider community.
In short there should be no new regulation. If you want to turn private land into pseudo national park, pay for it. Either buy the land or pay properly for sequestration services.
A sector-by- sector impact audit is necessary to chart a way forward with a timeline that doesn't make any ag sector noncompetitive.
Economic and technological achievability in the context of our international exposure is critical.
We need to be satisfied there are identifiable and economically viable pathways to net neutrality, including consideration of impacts from critical inputs such as energy and transport.
What would we be signing up for? The lack of clarity and serious ambiguity about what carbon neutrality means remains a significant issue.
So, any methodology of measuring output of a sector must be peer reviewed and linked to the global warming impact of the activity.
Rolling five year sector specific audits would need to be conducted to update any progress and review the impact of any program with respect to national, international competitiveness and farm gate returns.
Reaching the aspiration of economy wide Net Zero emissions by 2050 requires a global and local commitment by all industries, and agriculture is prepared to do its part.
We're happy to have a seat at the table with government to discuss this ambitious target but we're definitely not happy to be on the menu.
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