Climate body targets cattle barons on methane emissions

The push is doubly controversial because farmers say carbon released from sources such as cattle is difficult to both measure and abate, which means efforts to cut methane from herds would essentially involve shooting cows.

However, while sectors such as electricity generation and industrial emissions are becoming increasingly regulated, agriculture remains largely quarantined from policy efforts to reach net zero by 2050.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said Labor “will work closely” with farmers and stakeholders on the Climate Change Authority’s recommendations, which call for introducing mandatory reporting for agricultural emissions by 2026-27.

The authority said while companies with large industrial emissions are required to report their emissions under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act, in place since 2007, farm businesses are exempt.

‘Limited’ information

“Introducing comparable reporting requirements for the agriculture and land sector would provide the same regulatory support for and assurance of emissions estimates reported by businesses for these sectors of the economy,” the authority said in its five-yearly review of the NGER act.

“This would also help the government to plan, prepare and provide targeted support for actions to reduce these emissions, including supporting the government’s proposed climate-related financial disclosure framework.”

The report lists almost a dozen cattle companies including AACo; Consolidated Pastoral Company, which is owned by Mr Hands and operates nine stations across more than 3.2 million hectares of land; Mr Blundy’s BBRC; Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting; and the Holmes à Court family Heytesbury Pastoral Company holdings.

Lamenting “limited publicly available information”, the authority said total emissions from the pasture cattle owned by the companies named in the report, across farms in Queensland, the NT, WA and South Australia, would be about 4 million tonnes, or 5 per cent of the current estimated total for agriculture.

A spokesman for AACo said the pastoral company releases an annual sustainability report, which includes emissions and is investing in trials using feed additives to reduce methane in its cattle. “We recognise we have a responsibility to mitigate our climate impact.”

‘Target coal, not cows’

Rod Sims, the former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said the government should prioritise methane cuts from coal and gas rather than targeting agriculture, where abatement technologies do not yet exist.

“There’s the low-hanging fruit of coal and gas emissions, while agriculture is right at the top of a tree on a branch you might fall off – you don’t need to go there. Let’s deal with the easy stuff, which is measuring the methane emissions coming from coal and gas.”

“If you can measure it, you can address it in a year or three. There’s no way we’re doing that with cows because you’d need to shoot every third cow.”

The authority criticised the use of certain categories of “veteran” carbon credits in the safeguard mechanism, which allows for offsetting with ACCUs that only guarantee sequestration of carbon for 25 years.

“There is a risk Australia is lagging global norms on acceptance of older, ‘vintage’ carbon offsets for use in the safeguard mechanism and granting units for permanence periods less than 100 years.

“The authority recommends encouraging projects with the shorter period transition to a 100-year permanence period, and considering further approaches to ensure the scheme-wide average storage duration is at least 100 years.

“It makes sense – and it is in Australia’s national interest – to play a leading role in the development of a robust, liquid, high integrity, trusted and effective global carbon market.”