Climate report says "break tradition"

Bairnsdale Advertiser
Monday 22/10/2007 Page: 1

As the Federal election clicks into top gear, a new report released last week by the Agricultural Alliance on Climate Change shows that the future for rural Australia lies not just in traditional crops and stock, but in harvesting the sun and the wind and carbon farming. The AACC commissioned the CSIRO report which shows that farmers could be enjoying up to an extra $2.94 billion every year by getting involved in delivering Australia's clean energy economy.

The AACC asked the CSIRO to look at the opportunities of providing fuel, as well as more greenhouse friendly food and fibre and environmental services into the Australian and global economies. CSIRO identified a number of opportunities:

• Providing renewable energy infrastructure like wind and bio-electricity under policies such as a clean, renewable energy target of 25 per cent by 2020.
• Assisting the agricultural sector with finding and delivering greenhouse gas savings from its own activities by rewarding early action.
• Creating (accredited and verified) environmentally- sound offsets in the rural sector as part of a national emissions trading scheme.
• Increasing active biodiversity conservation on private land from six to 14 per cent across Australia.

CSIRO also found that by harvesting clean renewable energy and farming carbon, farmers could earn up to $1.3b a year including wind royalties of up to $263m. The total potential annual revenue, including biodiversity stewardship payments is up to $2.94b.

This report shows that although farmers and rural communities have been on the frontline of climate change impacts, the future of rural Australia lies in climate solutions like harvesting wind, solar and carbon farming. However, report authors state that these rural based solutions and other mitigation actions won't happen without the right policies from Government to cut greenhouse pollution and drive the shift towards a clean energy future.