Representatives of the Australian grains industry are calling on the Federal Government to make an immediate decision to exclude agriculture from its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
In a joint response to the Government's Green Paper on the Scheme, the Grain Growers Association, GrainCorp and the Grains Council of Australia have argued that leaving a decision until 2013 will create uncertainty and act as a barrier to investment in the grains industry.
In a statement issued by the three groups today, GGA chairman John Eastburn said there were downsides to both delaying a decision and to including agriculture in the scheme.
"Agriculture will be the sector most strongly affected by climate change, and we support the general thrust of the Government's Scheme in reducing Australia's emissions," Mr Eastburn said.
"However, the proposed scheme is aimed at companies emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 and there will be few individual farm businesses in that category."
Instead, Mr Eastburn said sustainable development of the Australian grains industry would be enhanced through the development of an industry-specific voluntary market-based mechanism for trading carbon equivalents.
He said this would be more suitable to working at an individual farm scale.
"Such an approach will reward Australian farmers for adopting farming practices that reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses," he said.
The voluntary market system proposed would be similar to that developed by the Chicago Climate Exchange.
"Such a market would allow agriculture to provide offsets to those industries covered in the Governments compulsory Scheme, as well as providing an incentive to reduce direct emissions," Mr Eastburn said.
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