A NEW analysis released today reinforces the National Farmers’ Federation’s case that the Federal Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) does not work for Australian farmers.
The report, ‘Agriculture and GHG mitigation policy: options in addition to the CPRS’, from rural economics consulting group ACIL Tasman, analyses the CPRS as it currently stands.
It includes findings which highlight the unfavourable impact on jobs that farmers support and on the food production upon which we all rely in the CPRS' emissions trading scheme (ETS) .
“Pressure is mounting on the Federal Government to take decisive action now to remove agriculture’s emissions from intended CPRS coverage once-and-for-all,” NFF president David Crombie said today.
“ACIL Tasman’s report stresses the exact case we’ve put to the Government for months... that the CPRS does not tick all the necessary boxes and that the Government has no choice but to look outside the confines of the CPRS for agriculture.”
The report, commissioned by the NSW and Victorian Departments of Primary Industries, highlights CPRS shortcomings for Australia’s $137 billion farm sector, while expanding on workable economic and environmental alternatives to covering agricultural emissions.
“As we have repeatedly emphasised, the report explains the benefits of adopting a carrot, rather than stick, approach to dealing with agriculture’s emissions,” Mr Crombie said.
“It favours delivering incentives to farmers to manage emissions rather than punishing the sector for them.
"This is similar to what the US, countries in Europe, Japan, Canada and other nations are doing - they've already recognised agriculture is different and doesn’t fit the emissions trading blueprint.
“ACIL Tasman recognises that agriculture can play a major role in further mitigating emissions, but these opportunities will be largely ignored under the CPRS.
"The affect will add unnecessary costs to the Australian economy.
"It could severely impact the $32 billion-a-year farm export sector and the 317,000 Australian jobs in agriculture it directly supports.
"And it would constrain food production at a time when the exploding world population (growing by 100 million people per year) can least afford it.
“The report emphasises agriculture’s huge potential for underwriting Australia’s greenhouse gas targets - if the Government can provide the tools and an appropriate way for farmers to be part of the solution.
"An inflexible approach will simply not cut it.
“The Rudd Government must not hamstring Australian farmers by tying itself to flawed Kyoto carbon accounting rules.
“The report also focuses on research and development as vital in keeping our farm sector vibrant and competitive, and that carbon mitigation benefits align with productivity gains.
“The ACIL Tasman report backs the NFF’s policy changes that add a new, complementary dimension to the CPRS by providing farmers with voluntary options outside of the regime, and hastens the need for the Government to permanently exclude agriculture from its CPRS.”
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