There are reports Labor are set to announce a global methane pledge at next month’s UN COP27 climate change conference.
This will result in higher prices at the supermarket and threatens the good old Aussie barbecue.
I note with great interest and pride that farmers are environmentally astute and have proven so with commitments to biodiversity measures, soil health and innovations in farming practices.
Any legislated emissions measures similar to New Zealand, which plans to tax agricultural long-lived gases and biogenic methane from cows and sheep through burps and nitrous oxide gases from their urine, will effectively tax farmers and make meat unaffordable.
This is yet again a failure on Labor’s part to understand that technology has not yet developed to a point where change will not hurt primary industry.
It will certainly impact the export industry.
The situation is in parallel with Labor’s fast track to emissions reduction by prematurely closing coal and gas powerhouses across Australia.
The need for a “quick win” may well be the beginning of rolling blackouts for Australia.
I will be keenly watching Europe over the next few months to see how they manage power provision and prices.
I am not disputing the impact of the war in Ukraine and the stymying of the Russian supply of oil and gas to their European neighbours.
The fact does remain the fast-tracking of closures of reliable power sources across Europe is causing grief already, with existing plans for closures being reconsidered, fundamentally because reliability matters to everyone on a domestic and industrial level.
We all want a sustainable future for our planet and our grandchildren, but not in making food unaffordable – we need to assess the risk.
Technology has been the Coalition’s path to energy sustainability and it remains the focus for food sustainability too.
I’ve spoken with seaweed producers over the past couple of years about the “miracle cure” for methane production in cattle, but at this point there is no way of producing the amount or the method to deliver such solutions.
The government should invest in these innovations, rather than bringing out the same old tactic: tax.
Rushing through legislation and promises at COP27 is not going to assist any Mallee farmer.
