Land Use: Agriculture and Forestry

Greenhouse gas emissions from land use can be reduced to net zero

October 2014

A prosperous climate solution

Australia’s agriculture and land use sector is one of the country’s biggest emitting sectors and a key driver of near-term climate change. It is also currently the only sector of the Australian economy that can draw large quantities of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by sequestering it in growing plants and healthy soil. Land Use: Agriculture and Forestry explores how these sectors can mitigate climate impacts on the land, while bringing prosperity to rural areas.

Net zero in a decade

Land Use: Agriculture and Forestry research shows how Australian greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry can be reduced to zero net emissions within 10 years through mitigation and sequestration. It assesses land use practices in Australia as a source of greenhouse emissions, land use carbon accounting methodologies and baselines, the potential of land to draw down atmospheric CO2, and the impact of changes to land use patterns on local economies.

Net zero in a decade

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"This timely report shows that ambitious and smart climate action can get us to that zero carbon state at the same time as offering huge opportunities for a profitable transformation towards a truly sustainable future."

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

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Key Findings:

The land use sector can take a lead role in addressing climate change
Australia can drastically reduce its agricultural emissions to around net zero by implementing changes to some agricultural activities and limited revegetation

Revegetation of an overall average of 13% of cleared land can draw down sufficient carbon to balance ongoing emissions from land use activities
The Eucalyptus tall open forests of south-east Australia can sequester 7,500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide if allowed to recover from clearfell logging

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This report was produced in collaboration with Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.