Thread by @helenhainesindi

Don’t be fooled by the humdrum panel pic. Tonight we’re dreaming large. With @AustFarmInstitu I’m thrilled to join experts from science and industry in drawing a picture of a better future for Australian Agriculture. Here’s a glimpse (in thread form) 👇🏽

According to soil scientist and @ipcc_ch author Dr Annette Cowie, paying farmers to store carbon in soil is one of the biggest and most crucial ways we can avert the worst parts of dangerous heating and climate disruption. Here she is repping Australian science on the world stage

Some fast facts paint a grim picture:
🌏humans utilise 70% of the world’s ice free land.
🙊25% of that is degraded.
🍃we are losing soil 100x faster than we are replacing it.

But land owners are key to turning this around.

✅There is potential to sequester 5Gt of carbon in our soils globally every year

✅That’s about 10% of global emissions. This is key for offsetting the hard-to-abate sectors like ✈️aviation and 🚢shipping.

✅storing carbon in soils has side-effect of increased ag output 🌿

Bio-energy- making fuels from plants- is a key route for reducing emissions at the pace we need to avoid the worst climate outcomes for Australia.

We could pay farmers to fuel our cars instead of importing oil from foreign countries.

🌾🚘🌿🛩🌳🛥🎋🚖

And we can do all this without reducing farmland.

Combining:
🌳reforestation (⤵️carbon, ⤴️farm income) +
🌾 bioenergy (⤵️carbon, ⤴️farm income)
= ⬆️ crop productivity.

Climate action means better outcomes for farmers, and not just from a better climate.

We need a plan to capture this opportunity for our farmers. We won’t hit our target of a $100b industry without it. That’s why I moved a motion this week calling on all pollies to find #ourcommonground and build that plan together 💪🌾🙋‍♀️👩‍🌾🐮