It's not just electric and hybrid cars that need investment and stewardship, but aviation too. De-carbonising commuter aircraft will contribute to reducing worldwide greenhouse gasses. 

However, the need to transition to electric-powered road transport is even more important – accounting for around 10 per cent of man-made emissions, while aviation sits at around 5 per cent. 

Many people think aircraft are the biggest polluters and are a luxury but forget that taking their car to work every day contributes a lot more.

Not only should agriculture be included in Australia’s net zero emissions targets, but our sector can be a leader in achieving a low-carbon economy through innovative R&D that provides high-tech jobs as we adapt the way we produce food this century.

Agricultural research is producing new drought-resistant crops, new sustainable farming methods, improved methods to manage water and through our soil science, unlocking the potential for Earth’s living skin to act as a carbon sink.

Farmers and regional Australian communities will benefit from a central role for agriculture in Australia’s net zero emissions target. Carbon biosequestration in soils and woody plants is a win-win-win for on-farm water, regional biodiversity and climate change mitigation. The “4 per 1000” initiative (www.4p1000.org), launched at COP 21, outlines how agriculture can play a key role in global food security and reducing atmospheric CO2.

A clear national legislative framework to support land managers in the infrastructural and practice changes required to regenerate soil health on their farms will have economic and social benefits across the country. Politicians with short term perspectives are out of touch with their regional constituents: Aussie farmers are battling the effects of climate change right now, and most take a long term perspective to the stewardship of their lands. Agribusiness is already embracing carbon trading and Australia has the opportunity to be a world leader in the production and certification of net zero emissions food, due to our innovative farmers, our historical R&D strength in the agriculture sector and our diverse soils and climatic zones.

The emissions from Australian agriculture plus the emissions associated with land clearing for agriculture are similar to that that of the transportation sector. A credible net-zero target cannot ignore a fifth of the nation’s emissions. For Australia to contribute its fair share of emissions reduction to limit warming to less than 2 C, the net-zero target must be economy wide.

Given the sensitivity of the agricultural sector to climate change impacts the sector would be one of the major beneficiaries of reduced emissions. This coupled with supply chain requirements mean that the agricultural industry is already working to reduce emissions. For instance, Meat and Livestock Australia aim to reach net-zero by 2030 and the National Farmers Federation aims to trend to net-zero by 2030. Reducing emissions increases competitiveness and reduces the difficulty of effectively adapting to climate change impacts.

With quick and ambitious action the land sectors could achieve net-zero by 2030. This would require policies to reduce deforestation, investments in research and development into options to reduce emissions on farm, and large scale planting of trees and restoration of degraded pastures. If done strategically the tree plantings would improve production by providing shade and wind breaks. It makes much more sense to discuss what level of negative emissions we expect from the land sectors by 2050 than it does to ignore agricultural emissions entirely.

Committing to net-zero by 2050 would be an important step forward for climate policy that would bring Australia closer to the commitments of comparable countries around the world, improving Australia’s international standing.

A national target would align the Commonwealth with all the states and territories that have already made commitments to net-zero by 2050 (or sooner), providing certainty for investors to research, develop, implement, and scale efforts for emissions reduction and carbon removal.
 
It will be critical for short-term actions to align with the 2050 goal. This should include interim targets, including for 2030, that keep Australia on-track and accountable for reaching net-zero by 2050.
 
An important part of achieving net-zero emissions is achieving carbon removals as well as reducing emissions. To use an overflowing bathtub as an analogy, emissions reduction is turning off the tap, while carbon removals is scooping the water out of the tub. Generally, emissions reduction is cheaper and offers more certain benefits than carbon removal (which is harder to measure and can be prone to reversal).
 
While carbon removal will be an important part of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, it’s important that ambitious emissions reductions are maintained alongside a necessary growth in attention toward carbon removal.
 
Central to emissions reduction in the short-term is the responsible and equitable decarbonisation of Australia’s electricity system, followed by decarbonising transport and industry.
 
Public opinion data suggest that the majority of Australian voters want to see action on climate change. Formal commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, supported by concerted and genuine action, should serve to bring the government closer to the people it represents.

I think the most critical target is not 2050, which is 29 years away, but cutting emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, which is less than a decade away. For the transport sector, this can be done with a concerted effort of electrifying new vehicle sales (cars, buses, trucks, trains), and accelerating fleet replacement. This should have started decades ago, but it didn’t. It really needs to start immediately and be coupled with a transition of electricity to renewable power generation, if the target is to be met.

The international pressure on the Morrison government to adopt a 2050 zero net emissions target in the near future is becoming irresistible. The EU is moving steadily towards the imposition of a border tax on exports from non-compliant countries. US President Biden has announced a leaders summit, to be held in April with the express purpose of pressuring governments to adopt more ambitious climate goals. In this context, the option of waiting until the Glasgow summit in November (after a possible early election) before taking any action, has disappeared.  

 
Morrison’s reluctance to make a commitment stems from two main sources. First, there is resistance from the National Party and numerous Liberal backbenchers. While some, such as Matt Canavan, have claimed they are willing to cross the floor on the issue, this is a hollow threat given that Labor already supports a 2050 target.

The larger problem is that Australia’s current emissions trajectory is totally inconsistent with such a target. Energy Minister Angus Taylor correctly observed last year that reaching zero by 2050 would require a 40-45 per cent [cut] on 2005 emissions by 2030. Wishful thinking that the problem will be solved by magical technological innovations such as carbon capture and storage is unlikely to be enough to satisfy our allies and trading partners.

Let me outline some answers to the following key questions:

• What is the best way for Australia to achieve zero emissions by 2050? 
• How important is it to include agriculture? 
• Are there opportunities for Australia in aiming for zero emissions?  

These are three extremely old questions. The answers to them have been around for more than a decade. Let me repeat them. First, the most efficient manner to achieve zero emissions is through an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Other countries could eventually force an ETS on Australia. Watch the development of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) for an example of this.
 
Second, no country is currently arguing that agriculture should be included in the short-run, but it will become an agenda item as time proceeds. Note that there may be good opportunities for Australian agriculture to gain from carbon sequestration and selling offsets as the carbon price increases (as it currently is).
 
Third, the longer Australia delays moving to a proper climate change policy, the fewer economic opportunities there will be from being an early adopter of the technologies of the green revolution.

Having a formal target at the national level will give the long-term strong signal of certainty necessary for business to invest in clean technologies in Australia. A net zero target brings everyone together, and is achievable sooner than 2050, given coherent policy coordinated by state and federal governments.

Australia must prepare to implement transition plans towards a net zero target, and be ready to engage the global carbon markets and emissions trading schemes overseas, currently implemented in Europe and recently launched in China. We need to lower our greenhouse gas emissions across all industry sectors, and we should not be looking to do this through carbon offsets that can lead to complacency, but rather through direct investment in clean energy and renewable energy infrastructure. An emissions trading scheme will be critical to regulate the industries. This naturally will create new types of jobs that support regional growth, but also help reposition our global climate change position from “questionable” to leading stewardship.

Agriculture occupies 56 per cent of Australia’s land mass and contributes 14 per cent of our national greenhouse gas emissions, mostly as methane from livestock and nitrous oxide from the application of fertilisers.

Excising agriculture from net-zero targets is illogical and inequitable. Agriculture, perhaps more than any other industry, is susceptible to the effects of climate change through more frequent and intense droughts, reduced rainfall and higher temperatures, storms and floods. It follows that it also has most to benefit from a net zero policy and limiting the effects of climate change.
 
More importantly, it is in the best interests of Australian farmers for agriculture to be leading the charge towards net zero emissions.
 
The way to net-zero in the agriculture sector is through better farming practices that reduce emissions and sequester carbon on-farm, while simultaneously having a whole range of other production and non-production benefits. For example, increasing fertiliser efficiency, strategic grazing, stubble and soil management, and retention and re-planting of native vegetation, improve our carbon position and benefit the farmer’s bottom-line and environmental performance. Leading farmers are already doing this. Future advances in herd management and dietary supplements to reduce livestock emissions and environmental microbiological solutions to reduce denitrification from soils will enable greater cuts in on-farm emissions.
 
Net zero by 2050 is a national target. While it’s in the best interests of farmers to be carbon-neutral (and many already are), achieving net zero may not mean the agricultural sector as a whole has to be carbon neutral but it does need to do its share. And the good news is, we already know how to do it.

The world must reach zero emissions before 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change. To do our share, we need to develop action plans for the major sectors of electricity, transport, manufacturing and agriculture.

 
The community has moved ahead rapidly with rooftop solar. Concerted action, particularly investment in storage, could give us zero-emissions electricity by the early 2030s. Several European countries have set a date beyond which petroleum-fuelled vehicles will no longer be on sale. With major car companies now moving in that direction, we should set a similar target date for Australia. Given the average life of vehicles, it cannot be later than 2035.

A major investment in rail and tram networks will assist by making it possible for city-dwellers to get around on efficient public transport. Just as coal needs to be phased out of the power industry, natural gas needs to be replaced by green hydrogen, using solar and wind energy to split water. As well as moving away from petroleum fuels, agriculture can play a positive role by investing in soil carbon as well as restoring tree cover. It is self-evident that allowing any new fossil fuel projects would be criminally irresponsible.

Everyone is going to Net Zero. It’s the new normal for business, you don’t get your money without it. And you will lose your credibility if you don’t take it seriously.

I have been working on Net Zero Cities for many years as part of the ‘carbon neutral’ program established by the Federal Government 20 years ago.

We were a world leader then, now we are playing catch up but have good experience and good processes to use. The certification process is well established based on reducing emissions, switching to renewables and offsetting the rest. This is why agriculture must be part of Net Zero as big companies and even cities can't do it without offsetting carbon through tree planting.

In WA we have an amazing project called Gondwanalink restoring a swathe of bushland from the coast to the goldfields based mostly on Net Zero funding from companies and heroic small groups of people who do the planting. This is a wonderful partnership opportunity between cities and the bush and its progress is truly impressive.

In our cities, we can demonstrate Net Zero relatively easily now as we know how to do solar and electric vehicles. The big challenge is how to make these work together, how the grid can enable EV’s and how we can make a better city at the same time.