Farmers tell PM to cut emissions now

Farmers are calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deliver a credible net-zero target that includes making deep and rapid cuts to Australia’s emissions this decade.

The calls come following the PM’s earlier suggestions that regional Australians don’t care about climate change, which the group labels untrue and unhelpful, ahead of the Biden Global Climate Summit.

Crookwell farmer and Farmers for Climate Action Chair Charlie Prell said: “I’m no latte sipper, but as a farmer I want to see the Federal Government show leadership on climate change. 

“Farmers are on the frontline of climate change impacts and solutions. On the one hand we’re grappling with fires, droughts and floods and on the other hand our regions are in the box seat to benefit from the jobs and investment that will come with the clean energy transition. 

“Like many other farmers, I proudly supply my produce to the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities. Let’s stop muddying the waters with false divides, and unite - urban and regional Australians together - to ensure that we do everything we can to prevent catastrophic climate change.”

Farmers for Climate Action Acting CEO Fiona Davis said: “While the rest of the world is stepping up ambition, Australia is dragging its heels and risks missing out on decades of a climate-related economic boom. Agriculture is reliant on trading and Prime Minister Morrison’s stance on climate change is a threat to our industry. 

“We know trillions of dollars will be spent over the coming decades as the world transitions to a cleaner future. Australia risks being stuck in an eddy, isolated politically and economically from the rest of the world,” Dr Davis said.

“Regardless of any net-zero date the Federal Government sets, what we need to see is a clear plan for getting there that includes making deep and rapid emissions cuts this decade. That means a stronger 2030 target and a pathway for net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.”

What do you think of Scott Morrison's comments that regional Australians don't care about climate change? Would you prefer that he showed some leadership on this issue, rather than playing politics?

7 comments

I bet the farmer has machinery and vehicles that run on petrol/diesel fuel.

The machinery began as ore in the ground and from the ore to the finished metals, all were transported with petrol/diesel machinery, trucks, trains and ships, then they were manufactured using electricity from coal-fired generators.

The finished vehicles were transported all over the world using trucks, trains and ships, all with diesel engines.

Pipe dreams cannot be turned into reality.

Morrison is so out of touch on this issue. His recent speech has been roundly condemned and rightly so.

I'd like to see Scott Morrison show leadership on any and  every political issue rather than play politics on virtually every political issue. Which issue has he not played politics? He cant hold a hose, bush fires are a State issue but we have a federal Emergency Minister so what does he do? Sport rorts, every sort of rort; he's responsible for age care homes but any problems are due to the States; quarantine is a federal responsibility but the States cop it. He didn't want a banking R/C but was forced into it; he doesn't like Industry Super but he doesn't like paying pensions. Climate change it's divide and demise. What's not politics about Scott Morrison?

I note that according to statistics that farmers and grazers own 135,997 farms across Australia and the Farmers for Climate Action group claims to have 5000 members and they rely in part on the work of the IPCC and NASA. As a percentage of they make up  3.67% of farmers and graziers, hardly what could be called a representative force.

I am a believer in climate change, it is a fact of life, but the problem I have with the information around climate change is that we are expected to believe that throwing money at various people, groups and governments will somehow stop the climate from changing. If I speak up I can expect to be bombarded with supposed facts as well as some personal abuse. I can accept the personal abuse from complete strangers but I can't accept what the affect of spending all that money will mean to stop, or even slow down, climate change.

Groups such as Farmers for Climate Action ask for money, Al Gore asks for money, the Paris Agreement asks for money and governments are prepared to spend taxpayers money to fight climate change. My cynical self thinks that political parties are only in the business of self promotion and getting elected and the best way to do this is to create a problem which only they can solve if elected. Think back on what politicians are actually saying, Rudd declared global warming as the greatest moral challenge of our time and then did nothing once elected. Others are also claiming that climate change needs to be "fixed" but all that has been suggested is to set targets for years away with no plan as to how those targets can be achieved.

Leave the farmers alone. Without them we don't eat or even survive. Unless we can change China's attitude, then green house emissions will keep on spiraling for the unforeseeable future. They are going to do exactly nothing until 2030, and then promise to halve emissions by 2060, despite still building new coal fired power stations with the emission capacity every year at the rate of at least double the amount of the total of Australia's fossil fuel power stations annual emissions. Can we believe them after their empty promises regarding Hong Kong, and to their neighbors in the south China sea. Our reductions would have a world wide effect comparable to swatting a little house fly from an elephants rump.

I am a seventy eight year old farmer; I have rarely seen two seasons the same; we heard that climate change caused the "black summer" bushfires in 2019 - 2020, why wasn't this last summer worse than the previous one? I believe in climate variability, always has been, always will be. Last year was one of the best I have seen in south eastern Australia, so if that is "climate change", turn it on.Climate change is either one of two things, 1 a

political statement. 2, A new religion. The main aim is to have a one world "socialist" government so what do all these "climate alarmists" intend to give up?

Perfectly correct, Tony.
It is VERY annoying with the fictional Climate Change clap-trap because the climates change ever hour, every day, month and year in every corner of every country on Earth.

Climate change is a change in the pattern of weather, and related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets, occurring over time scales of decades or longer. Weather is the state of the atmosphere—its temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall and so on—over hours to weeks. 
Instead of the constant clap-trap, those who believe it can get off their bums and go and clean up the 25 most polluted cities in the world because Australia's air quality is among the BEST on our planet, probably their pollution is starting to affect clean-air countries.

Pick a city below to all the 'brainwashed believers' which one will YOU go to first to start cleaning all of these places.

The world's most polluted city is... Zabol, IranGwalior, IndiaDelhi, IndiaNarayangonj, BangladeshHengshui,  ChinaRawalpindi, PakistanMandi Gobindgarh, IndiaAmritsar in IndiaRaipur, IndiaPatna, IndiaPrayagrajPeshawar, PakistanHandan, ChinaLucknow, India Firozabad, IndiaKhanna in IndiaKanpur, IndiaShijiazhuang, ChinaDammam Saudi ArabiaAl Jubail, Saudi ArabiaRiyadh, Saudi Arabia

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