with Libby Price

tinuing trend to drier conditions and drought, and other natural disasters such as flood and fires.

His argument is that many farmers will find the prospect of net zero emissions too hard to contemplate.

“For starters we don’t actually need to go to net zero for agriculture to be consistent with the Paris agreement – the international agreement on climate change first adopted in 2015, with signatories agreeing to fiveyear cycles of increasingly ambitious climate action,” Professor Howden explained on Country Today

“What we have signed up to as a nation is to reduce our emissions so temperatures stay below two degrees and as close to 1.5 degrees as we can.

“To go to 1.5 we do need to go to net zero for carbon dioxide, but we don’t have to go to net zero for methane and nitrous oxide and they are the two big gases produced by agriculture.

“So for methane that’s about a

60 percent reduction, for nitrous oxide about a 30 percent reduction.”

So why are the likes of Meat and Livestock Australia, the National Farmers Federation and others committing agriculture to the net zero by 2030 target?

“I couldn’t answer that one but it’s not a target that is actually required to essentially do the fair share of agriculture under the Paris agreement,” Professor Howden said.

“So we need to move away from a sort of knee-jerk reaction to a net zero number to something that is a bit more nuanced that reflects the gases that come from different industries.

“If you have a target which you simply don’t have a way of getting there, essentially, it’s very stressful if you’re being told to do something that isn’t possible.

“So we need to make these things feasible, and not just feasible but economically feasible, and at the same time improve other aspects of farming and rural life.”

So, having gone through the fine print, we need a rethink and realistic, achievable targets, not just making promises that cannot be kept.

KNOWLEDGE: Dr James Hunt presents his findings on nitrogen management, N banking, at BCG’s annual trials review day.

Trials day looks to the future