19 July 2024
Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) appreciates the opportunity to provide a submission on the Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Consultation Roadmap.
Key Points
- FCA welcomed the government’s implementation of fuel efficiency standards, as these form a crucial link in ensuring the transport sector can decarbonise and farmers have access to better quality vehicles.
- Climate impacts on transport and infrastructure are already adding complexity to the sector, so including resilient freight options in the roadmap is critical. Ensuring that low emissions solutions can operate in adverse circumstances and that disruptions will not force the reversion back to high emissions methods will be key.
- Integrated planning will be vital to help minimise inefficiencies in transport networks, enabling reductions in emissions and supporting the roadmaps, avoiding, shifting, and improving the model of emission reduction.
- Investment and application of sustainable and low emission biofuels is required to support the shift to net zero, noting electrification of agricultural and transport heavy machinery is currently not commercially available, or viable from an energy infrastructure perspective in Australia.
- Ensuring that freight from the farm gate is low to zero emissions is important for both the agriculture and the transport sectors to meet their respective decarbonisation goals.
- Ensuring that service reliability in regional areas is not compromised, while mapping net zero journeys and providing low emission economy opportunities to rural and regional Australia is key.
- FCA directs the committee to our submission on the Net Zero Agriculture and Land Sector Plan, for consideration of the overlap between agriculture and transport.
About Farmers for Climate Action
Farmers for Climate Action represents over 8,300 farmer members and is backed by 45,000 community supporters nationwide. FCA recognises the importance of safeguarding the ability of farmers to produce food and fibre for the nation and export while seeking the deep emissions reductions we need to protect our farming families and our food supply. FCA’s member base comprises farmers, agricultural leaders and rural Australians who collectively work to influence Australia to adopt strong climate policies by growing the number of farmers, rural communities and elected representatives championing ambitious action.
Fuel Efficiency Standards and New Technologies
The implementation of fuel efficiency standards in Australia are a key part of decarbonising transport emissions, but also provides better choices to Australian farmers for vehicles to use
on farm. These standards provide farmers and those living outside of town centres the ability to decarbonise their personal transport emissions where active and public transport are not available or would be inefficient. FCA actively called for and is pleased to see that these standards are now being implemented.
As part of the net zero transport and infrastructure plan, regional and rural charging infrastructure for electric vehicles will be an important investment. This infrastructure must be accessible and powered by renewable energy from the electricity grid. Ensuring that people purchasing electric vehicles in regional areas have access to charging infrastructure further entices the opportunities for decarbonisation. It is important to note that some of the regional grid does not currently have the capacity to support additional charging stations and this must be addressed.
Resilient Transport Options and Integrated Planning
Climate change is already putting pressure on food and transport systems, as the effects increase ensuring that the transport sector reduces its emissions while remaining resilient will be critical to ensuring food security. In FCA’s Fork in the Road report the impact on transport from the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change, was highlighted as causing supply chain shortages throughout 2022 as a result of the extensive flooding across the country. Both road and rail were impacted by the flooding, with the supply across the Nullabor having no land; alternative sea freight was used by one supermarket chain to maintain supply in Western Australia. Since 2022, other weather events have put pressure on transport options. Delays in transporting certain farm produce can lead to spoilage, and a decrease in the supply of affected goods. Extreme heat increases the risk to animal welfare for livestock in transit and can present challenges and delays. Ensuring that quickly dispatchable low emission transport options are available and that regional and rural areas have the necessary road and rail infrastructure to support alternate transport routes to maintain supply chains is required to realise a net zero transport sector.
Integrated planning of transport systems should be implemented to consider the entire supply chain. This has the benefit of aiding increases in efficiency and by doing so reducing emissions across road, aviation, maritime, and rail sectors. Modelling of climate risks on supply chains, before they occur, may assist in quickly detailing incidents and dispatching alternative transport options, ensuring that all members of a transport supply chain can respond to changing circumstances.
Bio Low Carbon Liquid Fuels, and Hydrogen
FCA understands that alternative fuels, such as hydrogen or bio diesel, have a role to play on hard to electrify systems and processes, such as aviation, heavy road freight, and heavy farm machinery. Biofuels also present an opportunity for farmers to add diversified income to their farm business and regional communities to support jobs and strengthen the local economy. Both these points were highlighted in our recent submission on the Future Made in Australia: Unlocking Australia’s Low Carbon Liquid Fuel (LCLF) Opportunity, and key recommendations have been reiterated below.
Biofuels should not replace the ambition in the shift from internal combustion engines to electric motors powered by renewable energy. Zero emissions technologies must be prioritised, while low emissions alternatives have a role to play, policies should not lock in ongoing emissions by delaying the switch away from polluting engines.
It is critical that the manufacturing of biofuel does not displace food and fibre production. To ensure the LCLF industry contributes to sustainability goals without compromising food security or nature protection, additional avenues for farmers to diversify income streams, feedstocks from non–food waste products such as crop residues, rejected crops, and animal manures should be considered before incentivising the shift of food production land to biofuel.
Australia’s agricultural sector size, and potential volumes of organic material for biofuel feedstocks represent an area of advantage for Australia in alternative fuel production. This opportunity to convert agricultural waste into a valuable commodity offers many benefits for farmers and supports the principles of a circular economy. Assisting farmers with the upfront investments needed to diversify operations into supplying LCLF feedstock required, is necessary to overcome barriers to uptake. Fifty–six percent of farmers surveyed by FCA in 2023 cited high upfront costs and limited access to capital as barriers to investing in new technologies. The location of biofuel production close to farms and in regional communities would ensure economic opportunities exist in those areas in a low carbon future as outlined in FCA’s report Farm Powered.
Further, FCA supports continued investment in research, development, commercialisation and extension focusing on suitable crops for LCLF feedstocks (including multi–purpose food and biofuel crops) and methods of sustainable production, as well as integrating production into other diversified and sustainable farm operations.
Agriculture and Transport Sector Decarbonisation
Noting that the Net Zero Emission Sector Plans have considerable overlap, FCA highlights that balancing the emissions reduction of the transport sector and food distribution network will require the transport and agricultural sectors to work together. While the agriculture sector can decarbonise emissions on farms, and in processing, reducing emissions from the transport of food and agricultural produce provides opportunities to lower the emissions across the whole value chain. This also responds to demand for low emission food and fibre in supermarkets and grocers.
Farmers for Climate Action welcomes the continued development of the sectorial net zero pathways and roadmaps which will ensure policy and incentives for economy wide emission reduction, and long–term investment and industry commitment.
Please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Paul Stark, Policy and Farmer Engagement Officer through the details below should you wish to further discuss this submission.
Yours sincerely,
Natalie Collard
CEO of Farmers for Climate Action
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1800 491 633
Web: farmersforclimateaction.org.au
Post: FCA C/– Melbourne Connect Co–Working, Lvl 2 700 Swanston Street, Carlton VIC
3053
