Land Use

How greenhouse gas emissions from land use — agriculture and forestry — can be reduced to net zero

Australia’s agricultural, farming and forestry sectors are unique in their ability to draw carbon out of the atmosphere, potentially of one of the biggest climate solutions available

Australia’s agriculture and land use sector is one of the country’s biggest emitting sectors and key driver of near-term climate change.

However, it is also the only sector of the Australian economy at present that can draw large quantities of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by sequestering it in growing plants and healthy soil.

Beyond Zero Emissions’ Land Use research report (2014) shows how Australian greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry can be reduced to zero net emissions within 10 years through mitigation and sequestration.

The report comprehensively assesses:

  • land use practices in Australia as a source of greenhouse emissions
  • land use carbon accounting methodologies and baselines
  • the potential of the land to draw down atmospheric CO2, and
  • the impact of changes to land use patterns on local economies.

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

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

Through modelling and exploration of different alternative scenarios, [this report] discusses plausible opportunities toward substantial emissions reductions in the agricultural sector.

Graciela Metternicht - Professor and Director of University of NSW, Institute of Environmental Studies