After the Morrison Government failed to do so at COP26 last year, the Albanese Government has signalled its intention to sign on to the Global Methane Pledge.
Carbon dioxide gets a lot of attention in relation to climate change, but methane is a powerful greenhouse gas also driving global warming and weirding. The main sources of methane related to human activity in Australia in 2020 were:
- Agriculture (48%)
- Fugitive emissions from coal (21%)
- Land use change & forestry (12%)
- Waste ( 10%)
- Fugitive emissions from gas and oil (7%)
- Electricity, industry and transport (2%)
The Global Methane Pledge was initiated last year. Countries committing to it agree to do their bit to collectively reduce global methane emissions at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. More than 100 nations signed up to it at launch. Australia – still under the Morrison regime at that point – wasn’t one of them.
As SolarQuotes’ Ronald lamented at the time:
“We weren’t only faced with a clear moral choice. We also had to decide between acting sensibly and helping secure humanity’s future or acting stupidly and unnecessarily, putting it at greater risk. Our leadership chose to be stupid.”
At the time of writing, 122 countries have committed to the Global Methane Pledge. While Australia still isn’t officially one of them, that should change very soon. Yesterday, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the Albanese Government was getting with the program.
While Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce may be (somewhat) out of the way, the Opposition still hasn’t changed its off-key tune on the Global Methane Pledge.
Earlier this month, Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said such a move will hurt farmers and consumers. He claimed farmers would need to reduce their herd numbers and it will drive up the cost of Australians’ grocery bills.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton recently reportedly claimed signing the pledge would result in a “tax on cattle”. But Minister Bowen says:
“Our approach will not involve new taxes, will not involve livestock reductions or arbitrary domestic targets.”
Australia’s approach won’t be to just focus on agriculture – the Albanese Government says it will work closely with energy, resources, agriculture and waste sectors on sensible plans for methane emission reduction.
So, What Do Farmers Think?
Farmers for Climate Action, which represents more than 7,000 farmers across Australia, welcomed the news.
“Claims that signing the methane pledge threatens farming need to be called out. Farmers deserve the security of a safe and stable climate in which to grow our food,” said CEO Dr Fiona Davis. “Farm methane has been dropping while methane from the gas industry has been rising.”
The National Farmers Federation was also generally supportive.
“For agriculture it will reinforce our demonstrated commitment to sustainability and ongoing access key markets as an export orientated sector,” said NFF Chief Executive Tony Mahar. “Farmers are already leading the charge on climate action in Australia and have earned a seat at the table and the strong assurances and partnership provided by government mean the pledge will not negatively impact on farmers or the agriculture sector.”
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Michael Bloch,
“After the Morrison Government failed to do so at COP26 last year, the Albanese Government has signalled its intention to sign on to the Global Methane Pledge.”
I’d suggest signing the Global Methane Pledge is meaningless without also banning further approvals for any new developments & extensions of existing fossil fuel projects.
https://theconversation.com/opening-10-new-oil-and-gas-sites-is-a-win-for-fossil-fuel-companies-but-a-staggering-loss-for-the-rest-of-australia-189374
NOAA has published a graph of Annual Global Increase of CH₄ (methane), from 1984 through 2021, showing an increasing methane growth rate over the last few years, at:
https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/ch4_gr_gl.png
Annual Mean Global Carbon Dioxide Growth Rates are also steadily growing:
1960s: +0.8 ppm/y (decadal average)
1970s: +1.3 ppm/y
1980s: +1.6 ppm/y
1990s: +1.5 ppm/y
2000s: +1.9 ppm/y
2010s: +2.4 ppm/y
https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/gl_gr.html
Yet it seems to me that the Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen MP is unable to adequately reconcile approving the release of 10 new fossil fuel exploration sites.
https://twitter.com/ChaneyforCurtin/status/1567388684726734848
If the Netherlands is any indication this has the potential to cause major problems for Australia. Depending where Labor goes with this – Bowen claims no taxes, livestock reductions, or arbitrary domestic targets, but some sort of enforcement measure will presumably be created, Australians can look forward to soaring meat, milk, and general food prices – on top off all current rises, plus protests shutting things down.
It’s way too soon to say this’ll be catastrophic, but folk who ignore the canary choking really don’t have any excuse when it finally topples off its perch!
George Kaplan,
“If the Netherlands is any indication this has the potential to cause major problems for Australia.”
Please elaborate?
“…Australians can look forward to soaring meat, milk, and general food prices – on top off all current rises…”
I’d suggest it’s already happening and more disruptions are inevitably in the ‘pipeline’:
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/farm-floods-will-hit-food-supplies-and-drive-prices
“It’s way too soon to say this’ll be catastrophic…”
It will be catastrophic for our civilisation within this century if humanity cannot rapidly reduce its GHG emissions AND drawdown atmospheric concentrations to well below 350 ppm CO₂-equivalent ASAP:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2108146119
Part 2
What’s your solution to making food scarcer and more expensive? Remember there is a soaring population in Australia relying on charity and food banks to feed themselves. There is also a large and growing homeless population – I’ve seen claims of 100,000+ (2016 figures) to over 300,000+ now. If we can’t supply enough food now at a cost people can afford, how is the country to survive if Labor’s methane pledge makes it even more unaffordable and unavailable? Honestly this seems like legislation for a Green Elite, not Aussie battlers and those struggling to survive.
PS: Is anyone else seeing something odd with the Email field for comments? The Name field and Website (Optional) fields are regular size, but the Email field is … appearing as roughly a third of its usual size and easy to overlook.
George Kaplan,
“What’s your solution to making food scarcer and more expensive?”
More fossil fuel projects produces more GHG emissions, that consequently leads to an increasingly hotter & more hostile climate, that means increasingly more damaged & disrupted agribusinesses, that means less food available.
Did you miss this referred statement in my previous comment, George? :-
“If we can’t supply enough food now at a cost people can afford, how is the country to survive…?”
Good question. But I suspect you are still in denial about some of the primary drivers for scarcer & more expensive food (i.e. worsening climate impacts, & expensive coal, gas & diesel fuels driving rising food production & transport costs), given your statement: “Honestly this seems like legislation for a Green Elite, not Aussie battlers and those struggling to survive.”
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/more-electricity-price-hikes/#comment-1501135
Apologies, this apparently didn’t post so I’ll try again. Not sure if it was a net error, or was blocked by the mods – in which case this won’t work either.
Geoff,
A selection of articles on the subject – feel free to just read your preferred sources:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-08/enraged-farmers-cause-chaos-netherlands-nitrogen-emission-plans/101219526
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/protesting-dutch-farmers-refuse-to-back-down-despite-police-crackdown/
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/10/16/dutch-farmers-promise-fresh-protests-after-govt-backs-plan-forcibly-seize-farmland/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-10-17/dutch-farmer-protests-lessons-for-australian-farmers-methane/101539580
https://www.farmersjournal.ie/dutch-government-moves-to-buy-out-farmers-707601
https://www.politico.eu/article/netherlands-farmers-flee-environmental-rules-at-home-settle-other-eu-countries/
Floods are simply part of regular life as a farmer in Australia, as are droughts, and bushfires – though obviously it depends exactly where you are as to what issue(s) you’ll face. February this year saw farms flooded, but it’s back to business as usual. May too I think had some minor flooding, but no big deal – weather is never static, sometimes quite interesting. The most challenging part of weather however seems to be dealing with government.
Hypothetical climate change may be a risk down the road. Wiping out Australia’s farming sector is a matter for today. The loss of Ukrainian exports courtesy of the Russian invasion saw a lot of concern over Third World starvation. Australia exports more wheat, but will it still if methane emissions impact nitrogen fertiliser? And if dairy herds have to be cut 30% ala the Dutch model, that probably means 30% less milk, and milk prices at least 30% higher, unless the government permits the import of Chinese milk or something equally absurd and immoral.
George Kaplan,
“Floods are simply part of regular life as a farmer in Australia, as are droughts, and bushfires… but it’s back to business as usual… but no big deal.”
Your statements suggest to me you are not a farmer, have no direct interaction with any farmers in Australia, and apparently don’t have any deep understanding of any farmer’s concerns and experiences.
https://theconversation.com/our-flood-predictions-are-getting-worse-as-the-climate-changes-we-have-to-understand-how-hills-shape-floods-183820
“Hypothetical climate change may be a risk down the road.”
There’s nothing hypothetical about climate change, with clear indicators including:
* Global average surface temperature is rising;
* GHG (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous dioxide) concentrations are rising;
* Global ocean heat content is rising;
* Sea level is rising;
* Antarctic & Greenland Ice Sheets are both diminishing; and
* Arctic sea ice extent & thickness are diminishing.
https://zacklabe.com/climate-change-indicators/
“Wiping out Australia’s farming sector is a matter for today.”
Worsening climate change is driving bigger floods, more intense droughts, extreme heat & bushfires. This increases the risks of wiping out Australia’s agribusinesses.