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National Farmers' Federation

Farmers ready to help Australia implement the Paris Climate Agreement

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has today welcomed an announcement by Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop, that Australia will sign a global climate agreement with 196 other nations in Paris.
NFF President, Brent Finlay, said Australian farmers were making real changes to the way they operated their enterprises so as to integrate climate risk in management decisions and to continually build upon sustainability practices.
“For example, Australian farmers are making significant contributions to Australia’s emissions reductions,” Mr Finlay said.
“We are farming carbon by sequestering it in our soils and vegetation, investing to improve energy efficiency and use renewable energy and adopting practices that reduce the emissions intensity of both livestock and cropping farming systems.”
Mr Finlay said much of what had already been achieved had been done so through government and industry co-investment in the information, science and technologies required to enable farmers to adapt to changing conditions, improve energy efficiency, invest in renewable energy and to reduce emissions.
“With the Government’s renewed focus on innovation and energy, continued investment in science and innovation will be the key to agriculture achieving even more,” Mr Finlay said.
“Investment is needed to translate scientific understanding of emissions reduction into cost effective practices that farmers can adopt and new pathways are required to encourage farmers to invest in energy efficiency and to increase their use of renewable energy sources.
“We also need to further our investments in research, development and extension so that we have the best available climatic information to make seasonal and longer term decisions, and so that we continue to develop and adopt farming systems that are better suited to our climate.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government to ensure the policies to implement the Paris agreement in Australia will enable the agriculture sector to contribute to our emissions reduction goals and support Australian farmers to continue to grow a sustainable, vibrant and prosperous rural sector.”

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