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Reducing carbon emissions on-farm
DELIVERED by the remove an equivalent house gases with different carbon or carbon neutral. under the ERF, projects understanding then con- carbon products
Queensland Farmers Federation with sup- port and funding from the Queensland Gov- ernment, the Energy Savers program has been helping farmers identify energy savings on-farm that also reduce carbon emissions.
amount from the atmos- phere – or are seques- tered.
levels of impact, as an example.
There are 280 ERF pro- jects in Queensland with the potential to abate over 21.9 million tCO2-e.
must abate carbon and re- port in accordance with one of the approved ERF methods.
• Agricultural methods that apply to piggeries, irrigated cotton, cattle, dairy and sequestering carbon in soil
sider doing a more de- tailed analysis, and there are simple carbon calcula- tors available to help
• Think of the added benefits of carbon abate- ment – increasing soil carbon may increase soil water holding and reduce the amount of irrigation required, improving water and energy use efficiency will reduce the cost of energy and water per unit of produce, and check whether your projects could be eligible for other initiatives such as the land restoration fund
The program has used energy audits to identify significant savings in electricity consumption, with over 7,459,014kWh of potential power savings identified in 180 audits.
Farms that have reached net zero emissions are carbon neutral. Adaptation and mitiga- tion
QFF is currently working with NRM Re- gions Queensland and the Queensland Govern- ment to prepare a carbon farming handbook and fact sheets for farmers. Financial benefits of carbon abatement
Farmers are achieving a range of benefits by re- ducing emissions such as this NSW Grazier, a Hunter Valley winery, a central Queensland pig- gery as well as farms par- ticipating in the Energy Savers program. Measuring and under- standing carbon emis- sions
• Vegetation methods such as avoided clearing and reforestation
• Think about areas where carbon emissions can be reduced or carbon abatement can occur on the farm, such as fuel ef- ficiency through farm vehicles and diesel irriga- tion, reducing electricity consumption through improved efficiency, purchasing or installing your own renewable en- ergy and carbon farming, improving soil carbon, revegetating or allowing native vegetation to re- establish
This will achieve 6800 tonnes CO2-e of emis- sions savings annually – about 38 tonnes per farm per year if all recommen- dations are implemented.
• Capture and combus- tion of landfill gas and agricultural waste
Agriculture contributes around 15 percent of Aus- tralia’s carbon emissions or around 20 percent when emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry are included.
• Capture and combus- tion of biogas from waste- water.
It’s important to know emissions from Queens- land agriculture decreased by 6 percent between 2006 and 2015.
Adaptation for agricul- ture centres on continuous improvement in the ca- pacity of farmers to deal with a changing climate and ensuring the neces- sary tools are available.
• Direct cost savings through energy efficiency and renewable energy pro- jects, such as farmers par- ticipating in the Energy Savers program
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a global standard for measuring and managing emissions and has an Agriculture Guidance to understand how greenhouse gases are treated in agriculture.
There are a number of other methods under development including a method for producing bioenergy.
Next steps
• Research revenue op- portunities for carbon abatement – join in webi- nars on topics such as the Carbon Farming series presented by QFF, NRM Regions Queensland and the Queensland Govern- ment, found by visiting qff.org.au/events/carbon- farming-webinars, and identify potential cus- tomers looking for low-
Reducing carbon emis- sions may reduce costs and increase productivity, while helping reduce the impacts of climate change, contribute to our state and national targets and may even lead to a new source of revenue for your farm.
The breakdown of ag- ricultural emissions was:
Adaptation initiatives examples might be to make plans to improve flood defences, diversify crops, increase shade to reduce the risk of heat stress to animals and im- prove water use efficiency.
• Direct revenues from the sale of carbon credits through mechanisms such as the Emissions Reduc- tion Fund or private mar- kets – the value of tonnes of carbon abatement con- tracted is determined via auction through the ERF and this value is called Australian carbon credit units, most recently priced at nearly $16 per ACCU – the private market is more variable.
Understand and reduce carbon emissions on your farm with these next steps:
• Direct emissions from the burning of fuel and diesel on-farm, from the use of fertilisers, clearing vegetation, and from live- stock – scope 1 emissions
The University of Mel- bourne has compiled a number of greenhouse ac- counting frameworks for a number of agricultural sectors, which will assist in understanding emis- sions and consider abate- ment opportunities.
• Understand your carbon footprint – start simple to get a general
Please contact the En- ergy Savers team for any further information.
Emissions from the use of diesel on-farm could be offset by revegetating areas with native plants that sequester carbon di- oxide, as an example.
Carbon farming is the term given to avoiding or sequestering carbon through agricultural or land-use activities, such as improving soil carbon, revegetation or reduced methane emissions from livestock.
In private markets, companies are looking to purchase verified carbon credits from farms, such as Microsoft who pur- chased $500,000 in carbon credits from a New England grazier.
They include:
• Consider developing a detailed carbon footprint baseline for your farm using an accepted meth- odology so that you may be eligible to claim credits for abatement
There is a lot of work happening in both climate change adaptation and mitigation, and they are both important on-farm.
• Commercial, industrial and aggregated energy ef- ficiency
• Consider and set your own farm emissions re- duction targets – start with the biggest carbon emitters to make early re- ductions or low-cost pro- jects, consider meeting or exceeding our State and Federal governments’ targets, and gain carbon neutral certification for the business and certain products.
Climate change adap- tion refers to actions that will help manage the risk of climate change impacts such as higher tempera- tures, increased flooding and more intensive nat- ural disasters.
There are often financial and other benefits of re- ducing carbon emissions on-farm.
• Alternative treatment of organic waste
These can take the form of:
There are a number of tools available to calculate and certify carbon emis- sions and abatement and tools to certify carbon neutrality.
These methods outline the process of abating carbon as well as the re- quirements for measuring the amount of abatement.
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• Indirect energy emis- sions from the use of pur- chased grid electricity – scope 2 emissions
QFF led the develop- ment of a climate adapta- tion strategy for agricul- ture, which is the first step to address the adaptation needs of this highly di- verse industry.
• Indirect emissions from supply chain, distri- bution, use and disposal of goods and services such as the purchase of seeds and the transport of pro- duce to market – scope 3 emissions.
The plan is available by visiting qff.org.au/pro jects/climate-adaptation
There may also be ad- ditional revenues and ben- efits from carbon abate- ment projects such as:
Queensland University of Technology has de- veloped a simple tool to give a quick indication of carbon footprint for a farming enterprise.
Australia has committed to reduce greenhouse emissions by 26 percent – 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.
Climate change miti- gation refers to actions that reduce the impact of climate change by re- ducing carbon emissions, or carbon abatement such as reducing energy use, restoring soil carbon, avoiding vegetation clearing and revegetating degraded areas.
• Payments for biodi- versity or water quality improvement through mechanisms such as the Queensland Land Resto- ration Fund and the Reef Credit Scheme
There are a number of carbon certification tools that offer recognition of carbon neutrality, such as Climate Active, an Aus- tralian initiative which certifies businesses and organisations that are carbon neutral, and the internationally recognised Gold Standard.
In addition, Queens- land has committed to a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Carbon abatement is measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equiva- lents or tCO2-e, which includes the amount of carbon dioxide plus any other greenhouse gases standardised to number of carbon units.
• Indirect benefits that may accrue from abate- ment projects – such as achieving a higher gross value per ml of water through energy and water productivity initiatives, improved productivity and water efficiency through soil carbon pro- jects, additional benefits of revegetation such as livestock shading, in- creased biodiversity and lowering water tables and potential to appeal to new customers, and market new products that are low-
How to reduce carbon emissions
Net zero emissions re- fers to where a balance is achieved between green- house gas emissions pro- duced and greenhouse gases taken out of the at- mosphere.
Burning diesel releases carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide, all of which are green-
There are many ways to reduce carbon emissions on-farm including en- ergy and fuel efficiency, reducing synthetic ferti- lisers, reducing enteric fermentation, improving soil carbon and increasing native vegetation.
Meaning there may be emissions but they are offset by processes that
To be eligible for ACCUs
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Australian Pork Newspaper, March 2021 – Page 11
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