Albanese Labor Government lining up the tools for calculating emissions

The Albanese Labor Government is delivering almost $7 million as part of its commitment to help farmers and producers calculate emissions and sequestration.

The Government has this week opened a call for expressions of interest (EOIs) for proposals that support consistency across greenhouse gas accounting tools and calculators.

This funding will support the development of voluntary emissions estimation and reporting standards for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries, and provides $6.8 million to support uptake and incorporation of the forthcoming standards into calculators.

Access to trusted greenhouse gas calculators will allow farmers to understand and manage their emissions and assist in making business decisions that inform emissions reduction strategies on-farm.

Australia’s net zero transition requires action across all sectors of the economy.

But before farmers can make decisions in their business, they need to know the calculator they are using is reliable and using standard approaches.

This funding is part of the Albanese Labor Government’s 2024-25 Budget commitment of $63.8 million towards agriculture’s initial emissions reduction efforts, including $28.7 million in funding to improve greenhouse gas accounting in the agriculture and land sectors at national and farm levels.

The call for EOIs closes on 23 December 2024. For more information on the program and how to submit an EOI visit https://www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/climatechange/greenhouse-gas-accounting/expressions-of-interest

Quotes attributable to Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins MP:

“A changing climate, with more frequent droughts, floods and storms costs farmers and producers too much, which is why we want to help mitigate the impact by bringing emissions down.

“We’ve spoken to the industry, to farmers and land managers, and they’ve told us they want more assurances and standardisation of emissions calculators used by the sector, which is why our Government is acting.

“If we can bring a consistent approach to emissions accounting, we can get a clearer picture of the contribution the agriculture sector can make to the economy-wide net zero target.”