Page 13 - National Poultry Newspaper

Reducing carbon emissions on-farm
DELIVERED by the Queensland Farmers Fed- eration with support and funding from the Queens- land Government, the Energy Savers program has been helping farmers identify energy savings on-farm that also reduce carbon emissions.
Emissions from the use of diesel on-farm could be offset by revegetating areas with native plants that se- quester carbon dioxide, as an example.
reduced methane emissions from livestock.
ing emissions such as this NSW Grazier, a Hunter Valley winery, a central Queensland piggery as well as farms participating in the Energy Savers program. Measuring and under- standing carbon emis- sions
of landfill gas and agricul- tural waste
• Think about areas where carbon emissions can be re- duced or carbon abatement can occur on the farm, such as fuel efficiency through farm vehicles and diesel ir- rigation, reducing electric- ity consumption through improved efficiency, pur- chasing or installing your own renewable energy and carbon farming, improving soil carbon, revegetating or allowing native vegetation to re-establish
irrigation required, improv- ing 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 en- ergy audits to identify sig- nificant savings in electric- ity consumption, with over 7,459,014kWh of potential power savings identified in 180 audits.
There is a lot of work happening in both climate change adaptation and miti- gation, and they are both important on-farm.
Financial benefits of car- bon abatement
There are a number of tools available to calculate and certify carbon emis- sions and abatement and tools to certify carbon neu- trality.
These methods outline the process of abating carbon as well as the requirements for measuring the amount of abatement.
• Consider and set your own farm emissions reduc- tion targets – start with the biggest carbon emitters to make early reductions or low-cost projects, consider meeting or exceeding our State and Federal govern- ments’ targets, and gain carbon neutral certification for the business and certain products.
This will achieve 6800 tonnes CO2-e of emissions savings annually – about 38 tonnes per farm per year if all recommendations are implemented.
Adaptation for agriculture centres on continuous im- provement in the capacity of farmers to deal with a changing climate and en- suring the necessary tools are available.
• Direct cost savings through energy efficiency and renewable energy pro- jects, such as farmers par- ticipating in the Energy Savers program
• Understand your carbon footprint – start simple to get a general understanding then consider doing a more detailed analysis, and there are simple carbon calcula- tors available to help
Reducing carbon emis- sions may reduce costs and increase productivity, while helping reduce the impacts of climate change, contrib- ute to our state and national targets and may even lead to a new source of revenue for your farm.
Agriculture contributes around 15 percent of Aus- tralia’s carbon emissions or around 20 percent when emissions from land use, land-use change and for- estry are included.
Adaptation initiatives ex- amples might be to make plans to improve flood de- fences, diversify crops, in- crease shade to reduce the risk of heat stress to animals and improve water use ef- ficiency.
• Direct revenues from the sale of carbon credits through mechanisms such as the Emissions Reduction Fund or private markets – the value of tonnes of car- bon abatement contracted 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.
The University of Mel- bourne has compiled a number of greenhouse ac- counting frameworks for a number of agricultural sec- tors, which will assist in understanding emissions and consider abatement op- portunities.
• Consider developing a detailed carbon footprint baseline for your farm us- ing an accepted methodol- ogy so that you may be eligible to claim credits for abatement
• Think of the added ben- efits of carbon abatement – increasing soil carbon may increase soil water holding and reduce the amount of
It’s important to know emissions from Queensland agriculture decreased by 6 percent between 2006 and 2015.
Queensland University of Technology has developed a simple tool to give a quick indication of carbon foot- print for a farming enter- prise.
Please contact the Energy Savers team for any further information.
Farms that have reached net zero emissions are car- bon neutral.
Adaptation and mitiga- tion
• Capture and combustion of biogas from wastewater.
Climate change adaption refers to actions that will help manage the risk of cli- mate change impacts such as higher temperatures, in- creased flooding and more intensive natural disasters.
These can take the form of:
Understand and reduce carbon emissions on your farm with these next steps:
• Research revenue op- portunities for carbon abatement – join in webi- nars on topics such as the Carbon Farming series pre- sented by QFF, NRM Re- gions Queensland and the Queensland Government, found by visiting qff.org. au/events/carbon-farming- webinars, and identify po- tential customers looking for low-carbon products
QFF is currently work- ing with NRM Regions Queensland and the Queensland Government to prepare a carbon farming handbook and fact sheets for farmers.
• Alternative treatment of organic waste
There are often financial and other benefits of reduc- ing carbon emissions on- farm.
The Greenhouse Gas Pro- tocol is a global standard for measuring and manag- ing emissions and has an Agriculture Guidance to understand how greenhouse gases are treated in agri- culture.
There are a number of other methods under devel- opment including a method for producing bioenergy. Next steps
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The breakdown of agri- cultural emissions was:
There may also be addi- tional revenues and benefits from carbon abatement pro- jects such as:
• Direct emissions from the burning of fuel and die- sel on-farm, from the use of fertilisers, clearing vegeta- tion, and from livestock – scope 1 emissions
QFF led the develop- ment of a climate adapta- tion strategy for agriculture, which is the first step to ad- dress the adaptation needs of this highly diverse in- dustry.
• Payments for biodiversi- ty or water quality improve- ment through mechanisms such as the Queensland Land Restoration Fund and the Reef Credit Scheme
There are a number of car- bon certification tools that offer recognition of carbon neutrality, such as Climate Active, an Australian ini- tiative which certifies busi- nesses and organisations that are carbon neutral, and the internationally recog- nised Gold Standard.
• Indirect energy emis- sions from the use of pur- chased grid electricity – scope 2 emissions
The plan is available by visiting qff.org.au/projects/ climate-adaptation
• Indirect benefits that may accrue from abatement projects – such as achiev- ing a higher gross value per ml of water through energy and water produc- tivity initiatives, improved productivity and water ef- ficiency through soil carbon projects, additional benefits of revegetation such as live- stock shading, increased biodiversity and lowering water tables and potential to appeal to new customers, and market new products that are low-carbon or car- bon neutral.
• Indirect emissions from supply chain, distribution, use and disposal of goods and services such as the purchase of seeds and the transport of produce to mar- ket – scope 3 emissions.
Climate change mitiga- tion refers to actions that reduce the impact of cli- mate change by reducing carbon emissions, or carbon abatement such as reducing energy use, restoring soil carbon, avoiding vegetation clearing and revegetating degraded areas.
How to reduce carbon emissions
Australia has committed to reduce greenhouse emis- sions by 26 percent – 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.
Carbon abatement is measured in tonnes of car- bon dioxide equivalents or tCO2-e, which includes the amount of carbon dioxide plus any other greenhouse gases standardised to num- ber of carbon units.
There are many ways to reduce carbon emissions on-farm including energy and fuel efficiency, reduc- ing synthetic fertilisers, re- ducing enteric fermentation, improving soil carbon and increasing native vegeta- tion.
In addition, Queensland has committed to a 30 percent reduction in green- house gases by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
There are 280 ERF pro- jects in Queensland with the potential to abate over 21.9 million tCO2-e.
To be eligible for AC- CUs under the ERF, pro- jects must abate carbon and report in accordance with one of the approved ERF methods.
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 ox- ide and sulphur dioxide, all of which are greenhouse gases with different levels of impact, as an example.
They include:
Meaning there may be emissions but they are off- set by processes that remove an equivalent amount from the atmosphere – or are se- questered.
Carbon farming is the term given to avoiding or se- questering carbon through agricultural or land-use ac- tivities, such as improving soil carbon, revegetation or
• Vegetation methods such as avoided clearing and reforestation
In private markets, compa- nies are looking to purchase verified carbon credits from farms, such as Microsoft who purchased $500,000 in carbon credits from a New England grazier.
• Agricultural methods that apply to piggeries, ir- rigated cotton, cattle, dairy and sequestering carbon in soil
Farmers are achieving a range of benefits by reduc-
• Commercial, industrial and aggregated energy ef- ficiency
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National Poultry Newspaper, March 2021 – Page 13
• Capture and combustion