DEAR News Of The Area,

Z Koenigseder (NOTA 11 November) is very concerned about the impost of Australia’s methane pledge on Australian cattle and sheep farmers.

In fact, well before the methane pledge, the Australian red meat industry, proactively set a target to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Far from being “a ridiculous impost on our long-suffering Aussie farmers”, the industry body, Meat and Livestock Australia, states that their carbon neutral target will deliver “win-win benefits for producers” including improvements in productivity and profitability as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia has now signed the methane pledge and in doing so has joined 122 other nations in agreeing to reduce our methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

It has 86 times the warming effect over 20 years than the same amount of CO2.

Methane acts by preventing radiative heat from the Earth escaping out into space and it has caused almost half of the net rise in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era. Every emission of methane makes the planet warmer, regardless of whether it arises from agricultural or fossil fuel sources.

Cutting it back would significantly help to limit climate change.

Regards,
A JOHNSON,
Korora.