Barnaby's Nats should look for regional job positives in COP26

MILKING IT: Much of the "net-zero" debate has been over coal and coal-fired electricity but the National Party's traditional agricultural heartland is also in the firing line, with farming accounting for 13.5 per cent of Australian emissions.

NEXT month's COP26 climate summit is all about getting as many nations as possible to commit, as strongly as possible, to "net-zero emissions by 2050".

As we observed in this space yesterday, the pressure is well and truly on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to go to Glasgow with a "net-zero by 2050" promise that is at least commensurate with other leading nations.

Community expectations are high, and the Liberal Party, bruised by more than 20 years of Australia's parliamentary "climate wars", appears finally ready to commit to net-zero in a serious fashion.

NATIONAL ESTIMATE: Australian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a 2016 Commonwealth document. The data is 2011 but the relative proportions will remain broadly similar. LULUCF stands for 'land use, land-use change and forestry'. Picture: Australia, State of the Environment

Their junior Coalition partners, the National Party, however, worry about what a net-zero commitment will mean in the bush.

After a briefing from Liberal Party MP Angus Taylor as Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister and a subsequent party-room meeting - Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce emerged to say the Nationals would not be bullied into a net-zero commitment.

RELATED READING:

• Zali Steggall bill, deeper cuts and a Climate Change Commission
• Forrest urges end to climate inaction
  
• Albo talks climate backing Hunter candidate
  
• Phil O'Neill on climate and agriculture
  

Most of the public attention - and political action - on reducing greenhouse gases has been focused on the generation of electricity by fossil fuels: partly because the sector accounts for a third or more of global greenhouse emissions, but also because there are alternative methods of generating power.

The Nationals have come to see the coal industry and coalminers as their constituency, but they are also concerned about agriculture, which accounts for 13.5 per cent of Australian emissions, on the latest official figures.

Ultimately, though, they will have to join the Liberals in a net-zero pledge.

GLOBAL BREAKDOWN: Global greenhouse gas emissions by sector, compiled by US EPA using IPCC information.

Mr Joyce may be able to rattle the cage for a little longer, but the days of outright opposition to carbon intervention are over.

Australia should not promise more than it needs to in Glasgow, but those Nationals worried about employment impacts should realise that decarbonising will create new jobs and new industries, meaning "net" job losses are unlikely.

ALSO THIS YEAR:

• Morrison's February Press Club address
• Climate Council wants net zero by 2035
  
• Regions suffer for 'inner-city elites' says Institute of Public Affairs
  
• International Energy Agency backs hydro
  
• Tasmania wants state net-zero law
  

Similarly, "net-zero" does not mean zero emissions: it means equally offsetting whatever is emitted.

Forestry and other forms of agricultural carbon-storage will have a big role to play in whatever form Australia's net-zero pledge finally takes.

Even if some Coalition MPs doubt the climate science, seeing COP26 as a jobs generator would surely make committing to it a whole lot easier.

ISSUE: 39,698

POSITIVES: Agricultural practices might have to change, but decarbonisation should also bring advantages to landholders able to cash in on the need to sequester carbon in trees and soil.