In an uncharacteristically united move by the industry, representatives of the Australian and international wool sectors have banded together to fly wool’s carbon credentials under the banner of the Wool Carbon Alliance.

The group’s launch follows the release of a European Commission report that identified a household could cuts its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 300 kilograms a year and energy bill by 5-10 per cent by reducing its heating by one degree Celsius.

Wearing wool, sleeping on it and using it has insulation is being pushed as an easy fix solution to this statistic.

“I see this as a huge rallying point for each woolgrower,” said AWI director Chick Olsson, who is chairman of the new alliance.

“Apart from all difference in wool industry all of us who grow it know wool is a fibre that can answer the world’s problems.

“Ours is an ambitious plan to let the world know just how versatile our great natural fibre is.”

Other members of the alliance include International Wool Textile Organisation president Gunther Beier, Australian Wool Growers Association president Martin Oppenheimer, AWI director Meredith Shiel, Stud Merino Breeders president Tom Ashby and South Australian Farmers Federation wool representative Geoff Power.

The group will commence its lobbying at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month through Mr Beier and also plans to lobby the Australian government to insist Australian farmers are not included in the proposed carbon reduction trading systems.

Mr Olsson said the group aimed to work with the government to promote the “many roles” wool can play in a future carbon economy.

“CSIRO analysis shows that if we could capture just 15 per cent of the biophysical capacity of the Australian landscape to store carbon, it would offset the equivalent of 25pc of Australia’s current annual greenhouse emissions for the next 40 years,” the report Optimising Terrestial Carbon by Wentworth group concludes.

The report identified wool was made up of 50 per cent carbon, stored in stable form.

Mr Beier will early next year present the Wool Carbon Alliance Groups message to the European Parliament.