Australian agriculture can benefit from moves to address climate change: visiting authority
08 September 2008
Significant potential opportunities will emerge for Australian agriculture to benefit from
moves to address climate change, according to a leading international expert in the field.
Speaking at a recent Rabobank Advisory Board meeting in Sydney, Kate Hampton,
head of policy at British-based carbon specialist investment banking house Climate
Change Capital (CCC), said the potential commercial opportunities presented by the
transition to a low-carbon economy were considerable for Australian farmers and
agribusinesses, but that the sector must engage with government and participate in the
policy debate to address climate change.
Ms Hampton told the annual Rabobank Australia & New Zealand Food and Agribusiness
Advisory Board meeting in Sydney that Australia’s agricultural sector could not ignore
the challenges of climate change and must ensure it played a central role in finding a
coherent, integrated vision to manage and adapt to climate change.
“As big land managers, those in the agricultural sector have a major role to play,” she
said. “There will be long-term global opportunities for farmers who can respond
coherently to the twin challenges of climate change and food security. Australia and
New Zealand are well placed to capture a first-mover advantage.”
Benefits for the sector would include increased efficiencies, productivity and
sustainability of farming operations, through initiatives including improved water
management, renewable energy and promotion of eco system resilience.
The potential to be global leaders in innovation was also highlighted by Ms Hampton as
a factor that could see long-term benefits accrue to Australian and New Zealand farmers
as they search for strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture and then
commercialise these globally.
She said that although Australia’s contribution to overall global carbon emissions was
relatively small, there was a clear potential for ‘first-mover’ advantage by being a world
leader in addressing climate change. This was especially the case for agriculture, where
the combination of fundamental demand for food from a growing world population and
the need to, at the same time, reduce carbon emissions from farming would bring clear
commercial benefits for those who could achieve this in the longer term.
Ms Hampton – whose previous roles included advising the UK Department of
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs on policy during the UK’s G8 and EU presidencies –
was one of a number of leading experts addressing the 2008 Rabobank Australia & New
Zealand Food and Agribusiness Advisory Board meeting on the topic of Climate Change
and Emissions Trading – implications for the agribusiness supply chain.
The specialist board – which comprises a number of Australian and New Zealand food
and agribusiness industry leaders – is responsible for advisin Rabobank’s Australasian
operations on strategic agribusiness and agricultural issues.
The world’s leading food and agribusiness bank, Rabobank is one of Australasia’s
largest rural lenders and a major provider of corporate financial services to Australia and
New Zealand’s food and agribusiness sectors. Rabobank is recognised as a global
leader in sustainable banking.
Speaking after the Advisory Board meeting, Rabobank Australia & New Zealand CEO
Bruce Dick said climate change and emissions trading were among the most pressing
and challenging issues facing Australia’s agricultural industries, with agriculture identified
as a substantial contributor to carbon emissions in both Australia and New Zealand.
“As governments in both countries move along a path of implementing emissions trading
schemes, the role agriculture will be asked to play in reducing emissions will be hotly
debated. Further, companies within the food supply chain will be increasingly asked to
address their emissions by retailers and their customers.
“Understanding the drivers and the likely impacts will be extremely important for
agribusiness in Australia and New Zealand.”
Mr Dick said agricultural and food production occupied a very special place in the
climate change debate because these sectors have a fundamental importance to
humanity.
“They are industries that the world has to have – they are what feed and clothe the
world. So it is a very delicate path to navigating the challenges of managing climate
change, but still supporting these industries and protecting their ability to function,
compete and supply the ever-increasing demand for safe and healthy food and fibre,” he
said. “This is particularly complicated by the current environment of global food shortages and extreme food price inflation.”
Mr Dick said there was ‘no easy answer’, but agriculture must work with government to
seek practical solutions to climate change and be prepared to adapt to be “part of the
solution”.
“There is a lot that can be done in the way of increased efficiencies and improved
farming practices that can go part of the way to addressing agriculture’s carbon
emissions. However, clearly there is still also a need for new technologies and
innovations that will drive adaptation to lower carbon emissions from agriculture over
time. The vital point is that industries must be given time and resources to find these
solutions. This is the delicate balance policy makers and industry have to strike.”
Reserve Bank director and professor of International Economics at ANU College of
Business and Economics Warwick McKibbin told the Advisory Board meeting that it was
crucial that markets – rather than governments – drove emissions reductions.
Professor McKibbin said the focus should not only be on the level of emissions, but on
the intensity of carbon in the atmosphere at any point in time. “The objective should be
on reducing this over time, rather than identifying and meet an arbitrary target for annual
emissions per se,” he said. “To achieve this, emissions trading system must create a transparent forward price for carbon, not just a price today. Without the forward price,
investment decisions are impossible to make with any confidence and the system will fail
to meet its objectives”.
Other speakers included director of Fonterra Milk Supply Barry Harris, who outlined
Fonterra’s approach to preparing for emissions trading and the carbon mitigation
challenge, and Woolworths Limited group sustainability manager Armineh Marirossian,
who discussed the key elements of Woolworths approach to addressing carbon in its
business and highlighted the efforts the company was taking to minimise carbon in its
supply chain.
Rabobank Australia is a part of the international Rabobank Group, the world’s leading specialist in food and agribusiness banking. Rabobank has more than 110 years’ experience providing customised banking and finance solutions to businesses involved in all aspects of food and agribusiness. Rabobank has a AAA credit rating and is ranked as one of the world’s safest banks by Global Finance magazine. Rabobank operates in 43 countries, servicing the needs of more than nine million clients worldwide through a network of more than 1500 offices and branches. Rabobank Australia is one of Australia’s leading rural lenders and a significant provider of business and corporate banking and financial services to the Australian food and agribusiness sector. The bank has 50 locations throughout Australia.
Contact
For further information please contact Denise Shaw, Public
Relations (Tel: 61 2 8115-2744) or email on sydney.pr@rabobank.com.
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