Australia has passed it's most significant climate change policy in over a decade, but questions remain about how it will impact the agriculture sector.
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The safeguards mechanism, a newly amended element of the former government's climate and energy policy, seeks to reduce the emissions of Australia's 215 biggest polluters by forcing them to reduce their total C02 tonnage each year.
The policy has been applauded by environmental groups for finally shifting the political gridlock that has seen Australian emissions continue to rise over the last decade, and damned by the federal opposition as a "carbon tax by stealth".
Farmers for Climate Action, who represent for than 7700 farmers across Australia have applauded the bill's passage, including the improved scrutiny on carbon markets it will lead to.
The organisation's CEO Fiona Davis said that while they are pleased to see the policy pass, they will watch closely as the execution unfolds.
"Farmers have experienced devastating droughts, bushfires and floods driven by climate change, and this is driving up insurance premiums. We need to reduce emissions to protect Australian farms so we can farm forever," Dr Davis said.
"We also want farmers and rural communities to be able to grasp the huge opportunities a shift to a low emissions economy brings: tens of thousands of renewable energy jobs for regional Australia and diversification of farm income into selling offsets, which can provide income during drought.
"These measures are a sensible beginning. We compliment the Government, Greens and cross bench on negotiating. We hope all MPs, including those from the Coalition, join future negotiations to create more certainty for farmers."
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However, National Farmers' Federation (NFF) have expressed concern about "perverse outcomes" for farmers resulting from the "turbocharging" of Australia's carbon markets.
"Offsets from farmland are the 'net' in the government's 'net zero' plan," he said.
"This will potentially escalate land use conflict, with pressure to turn food and fibre producing land into carbon sinks to counter the emissions from other industries.
"It's critical that government avoids a mass buy-up of productive farmland - including using the ministerial veto for projects exceeding 30% of a farm if necessary."
But Maxwell farmer Cam Dooner said he thinks NFF's views aren't representative of most farmers he speaks to. He said that the real challenge of being a farmer in the modern era is the need to respond to environmental and market signals.
He pointed in particular to scaremongering by some elements of the farming community that diversified land use would threaten food security.
"They seem to have this perspective that it's going to be forced on people - that we're going to turn land being used for primary production and use it for carbon farming," he said.
The reality is the majority of our ag prodcuts - from wool, to meat to grain - are exported, and if we're worried about using up too much of the land on renewable energies and carbon farming ... that's just not going to happen."
"We may reduce our exports, but the idea that we're going to go hungry, without food, not going to have an agriculture industry just isn't the case."
The Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Amendment Bill 2023 was passed on March 31 2023, and comes into effect on July 1 2023.
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