Managing your farm’s emissions can:
- improve your farm’s productivity, profitability and sustainability
- enhance your farm’s resilience to changing climate conditions
- help maintain market access in the future and provide a competitive advantage
- increase access to green finance, including low-interest loans. Green finance is capital that is specifically directed towards environmental activities
- create new income opportunities through carbon and nature repair markets.
Improving your farm’s productivity, profitability and sustainability
Reducing global emissions, with everyone playing their part, is crucial to avoid the worst effects of climate change in the future.
Lowering your emissions and storing carbon can also help your land and farm stay productive, profitable and healthy. For example:
- Improving energy efficiency can reduce emissions while helping to minimise the impact of rising costs for things like electricity, gas, and fuel.
- Managing livestock through herd nutrition, feed efficiency and genetics can allow farmers to turn off their cattle earlier, reducing methane emissions intensity and increasing productivity.
- Carefully managing fertiliser use can support production by reducing fertiliser lost to the environment, which lower costs and reduces emissions.
- Increasing carbon stored in soil can improve the soil structure, fertility, water retention, and biodiversity of your soil.
- Planting trees can store carbon, create shelter for livestock and protect crops. It also creates habitats for wildlife and improves local water and nutrient cycles. You could also explore options to harvest the wood, creating an additional revenue stream for your farm.
Learn more about emissions reduction activities and their benefits (Agriculture Victoria).
Resilience to changing conditions
Emissions management doesn’t just improve your farm today. It also helps safeguard against future climate challenges.
Emissions management can help farms and landscapes better withstand extreme weather events like drought, floods, and heatwaves. For example, improving soil health and increasing vegetation can protect land from erosion and provide shelter for livestock.
Farmers are already experiencing the benefits of emissions management activities. For example, a study by Charles Stuart University and Climate Friendly surveyed 120 farmers and found that:
- 73.3% of respondents strongly agreed that carbon farming had improved their preparedness for drought.
- 71% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that carbon farming reduced the severity of drought.
Better drought resilience in this study was due to both the environmental benefits and the additional revenue from registering their project with the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme.
Maintain market access
ABARES reports that the global focus on emissions and sustainability is growing. Many agrifood companies, banks and key export destinations have set goals to reduce their emissions.
Managing your emissions can help you stay competitive and meet emerging market expectations. It might give you better access to export markets, favourable supply contracts, or cheaper loans in the future.
Access financial support
You may be able to get financial support to help with upfront costs. This could include:
- green loans, for example:
- the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has partnered with NAB to offer loans for farmers doing emissions reduction work.
- Environmental Plantings Carbon Farming Loans. The CEFC has committed up to $200 million to Rabobank Australia to provide discounted loans that help reduce upfront costs for farmers undertaking Environmental Planting sequestration activities under the ACCU Scheme.
- Commonwealth Bank have a range of product solutions that support agribusiness customers to enhance the sustainability of their business and manage the impacts of the transition, including Agri Green Loans and Energy Efficient Equipment Finance.
- government grants, for example:
- The NSW Government is offering a range of grants to support NSW farmers to take action and reduce their emissions.
- The QLD Government is offering funds through the Land Restoration Fund to support farmers wanting to start a carbon farming project.
- The TAS Government is offering rebates for farmers through the Carbon Farming Advice Rebate Pilot Program to support farmers wanting to start a carbon farming project.
- The VIC Government is offering grants to rural landowners to integrate trees into their land through the Trees on Farm Program.
Talk to your bank or local advisor to find out what support is available to you.
Earn income through environmental markets
You can earn money by participating in environmental markets and selling the carbon credits or biodiversity certificates that you receive to private buyers, such as businesses and organisations, or domestic governments. This diversifies the income you receive from your farm, making you more resilient to market changes.
Two programs that can help you earn income are:
- The Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme: sell carbon credits to private buyers, or domestic governments.
- The Nature Repair Market: sell biodiversity certificates to individuals or businesses.
Certain vegetation or soil projects can be registered under both the ACCU Scheme and the Nature Repair Market. Registering a project under both schemes can make the project more financially viable, especially on less productive land.
See more information on stacking nature and carbon projects (Clean Energy Regulator).
Before participating in environmental markets, it’s important to explore the costs and risks involved. See the ACCU Scheme page for more information.
Additional resources
Explore case studies and access further resources on on-farm benefits of emissions management.
Explore case studies
Explore case studies to learn more about the benefits of managing emissions:
- Agriculture Victoria: Various on-farm emissions case studies that highlight farmer learnings.
- Clean Energy Regulator: Various case studies across different types of emissions management.
- Meat & livestock Australia: A case study focusing on reducing emissions on a grazing farm.
- NSW DPI: On-farm carbon optimisation case studies that aimed to identify cost effective opportunities with multiple benefits.
See more
The ways to reduce emissions page introduces a range of options to manage emissions.