P.PSH.2128 - A Common Approach to Sector-Level Greenhouse Gas Accounting for Australian Agriculture: Project Overview and non-technical summary

Summary

AIA commissioned CSIRO to develop the Common Approach, with support from agricultural sectors, using technical experts from CSIRO, QUT, NSW Department of Primary Industries, University of Melbourne, Integrity Ag & Environment and Australian Wine Research Institute.

It was funded through contributions from AIA, CSIRO, AgriFutures Australia, Australian Pork Limited, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Dairy Australia, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Hort Innovation, Meat & Livestock Australia, Sugar Research Australia, Wine Australia, and the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Rural Development.

Voluntary participants in the project included other RDCs and various state government departments.

Objectives

Develop a consistent common framework for agriculture GHG baseline accounting at sector level (i.e. a Common Approach).

Key findings

The Common Approach is recommended to be used to develop GHG accounts for Australian agricultural sectors at national and/or regional level, representing the commodity(ies) produced. It can be used for:
- generating a GHG baseline, as a reference against which to track and report sector-wide GHG emission reductions over time
- generating GHG emissions accounts for sector-level annual reporting
- informing national and international stakeholders.

Benefits to industry

A common approach for GHG accounting across agricultural sectors is essential to enhance consistency, transparency and confidence in sector-level GHG reporting.

MLA action

MLA will continue to align red meat industry carbon accounting with the recommendations outlined in the common approach document.

Future research

The first recommendation is that a list of Scope 3 emission factors for common material and service inputs be developed that can be used by all sectors for increased consistency and transparency. This list could include commonly used inputs from the following groups:
- fertilisers, such as urea, mono-ammonium phosphate, single super phosphate
- soil ameliorants, such as aglime, dolomite, gypsum
- crop protection products, including common herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and insecticides
- capital goods, such as tractors, irrigation systems, photovoltaic cells, concrete, with guidelines for amortisation
- services (if feasible), such as agronomic consultancy, insurance, telecommunications.

The second recommendation is that the lack of easily available disaggregated data for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry category be addressed in collaboration with the Department responsible for the National Inventory. As highlighted by the key decisions described in the Methods and Data Guidance document, the Common Approach requires that land use and land use change emissions be included in sector GHG inventories, but it is acknowledged that this is currently difficult to implement consistently and transparently, and results are likely to have high uncertainty. An agreed breakdown of the national land use and land use change emissions could be achieved in a separate collaborative project. In addition, attribution and allocation of reforestation (emissions and removals) requires the development of a widely- agreed method; this was beyond the scope of this project as reforestation is largely outside sector boundaries. Part of this might be resolved with involvement of the Department (attribution) but allocation (second situation in Figure 3 in the Methods and data guidance document) is not a National Inventory issue.