Senate debates

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Documents

Global Methane Pledge; Order for the Production of Documents

3:55 pm

Photo of Peter Whish-WilsonPeter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | | Hansard source

nator WHISH-WILSON () (): by leave—This is a very important topic, and I'm pleased that the government has released information about the Global Methane Pledge, which is a voluntary international agreement that Australia has signed on to. I was very pleased that the Labor Party did sign onto the methane pledge. It's a voluntary agreement and of course I hope that Australia is going to be able to contribute our fair share to the reduction of global methane. Agriculture is going to be an important part of that, as is tackling fugitive emissions from the mining sector.

The Global Methane Pledge is important, and not just for Australia to reduce its emissions. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas; it's up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The methane pledge has to include agriculture and other sectors, such as the fugitive emissions from mining. I did want to speculate on what the Liberal Party's motives may be for wanting to see these documents relating to the government's signing of the methane pledge, as per their request for an order for production of documents on 26 October last year. I'm hoping that it might be because they want to work with farmers to take action on reducing methane emissions and of course to reduce emissions across the board more broadly.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Farmers for Climate Action, who had a fantastic event in Parliament House today. I'm hoping to meet with them later this afternoon. Farmers for Climate Action have released a report, Farming forever. They have given copies of it to various members of parliament today. It's their national plan for climate change in agriculture, led by farmers. Farmers for Climate Action have 7½ thousand different farms as part of their network; they represent over 35,000 individuals in rural and regional areas, and that's growing by the day. I went to one of their conferences in Launceston; 180 participants were there, and they didn't have room for extra participants. I chatted with a number of farmers there and they're a very diverse bunch. Some of them are big farmers and some are smaller, and some had diversified portfolios and crops. But they were all really interested in what they could do for climate change.

If senators haven't met with Farmers for Climate Action I urge them, please, to meet with them personally and to read this report. The report actually has survey results from over 600 farmers, who were randomly selected from their members plus from attendees at various meetings where they raised a number of issues that need to be addressed. This is important in relation to things like methane reduction across agriculture. I just want to read a few lines from the executive summary. They say:

Climate change poses a serious and ongoing risk to the Australian agricultural sector's viability which, in turn, impacts our long-term food security and the sustainability of regional communities. Agriculture is the most vulnerable sector to climate impacts and projected productivity declines are likely to impact all subsectors. Changes in seasonal conditions have already reduced farm profits by an average of 23% over the period 2001 to 2020.

So I hope the National Party are listening to this information and are going to meet with Farmers for Climate Action to hear this. They say:

Currently, a cohesive national plan to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change while improving resilience in agriculture to ensure farmers benefit from the shift to a zero carbon economy does not exist.

But clearly they would like it to. They say, and rightly so, that the agriculture sector has been leading Australia in reducing emissions in some sectors. They talk about how some of their key farming groups are well ahead of where governments have been. Of course, they provide a number of recommendations for what they would like to see from leaders in politics. They say that farmers need to get over a series of hurdles around what climate action actually looks like. The point I'd like to make is that they're very willing participants in taking climate action.

The Global Methane Pledge, which relates to reducing methane emissions, is one part of the overall equation. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas. But the pledge is a voluntary agreement. At the moment, we're hearing a lot about the potential to put in seaweed as an additive, which has bromoform in it. Tasmania has been at the forefront of growing Asparagopsis, one type of seaweed that can reduce emissions. There's a lot of work to do to prove that it can be broad-scale and reduce emissions across the board. That's one exciting thing that has been going on for a number of years. I know the government has a national seaweed plan, which will help with that. I'm pleased to say the Greens have been working with stakeholders in this area for some years now. But it won't be enough. There are many other things we need to do to reduce methane in this country to make a meaningful impact on climate change by taking climate action. I look forward to hearing more from the government in the next 18 months or so on exactly how we'll meet our methane pledge. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.