WEBINAR SERIES & ONLINE
Presented by the ATSE Agriculture Forum
Tuesday 18th May
12.00pm – 1.00pm AEST
Climate change mitigation and adaptation is a top priority for the Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) in 2021. All Australian state and territory governments have adopted a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, as are the major multi-national agricultural supply chain companies. The global expectation is that food exporting nations – like Australia – will have to comply with these 2050 carbon neutral targets.
Agriculture, as a major GHG emitter, faces significant challenges in meeting these targets. Methane from ruminants is the major component of agricultural emissions, but currently “off the shelf” technologies to abate these emissions are limited. Although agriculture has capacity to offset its emissions through sequestration of carbon in soil and woody vegetation, the cost-effective measurement of these offsets is a significant challenge.
None-the-less, Australian agricultural industries are enthusiastically embracing the challenges. The National Farmers Federation set a net carbon neutral target for 2050. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), the industry body of Australia’s largest livestock industries and a substantial GHG emitter has adopted the aspirational target of net carbon neutrality by 2030.
This webinar, was the second in a series hosted by the ATSE Agricultural Forum. Dr Michele Allan, current Chair of Wine Australia and former Chair of MLA discussed the drivers for rural export industries to adopt these challenging carbon neutral 2050 targets. Professor Richard Eckard, Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre at Melbourne University then discussed the possible technological pathways for rural industries to achieve those carbon neutral 2050 targets.
An extensive Q&A session followed, moderated by Professor Snow Barlow, Chair of ATSE’s Agriculture and Food Forum and Dr Joanne Daly, the Forum’s Deputy-Chair.
This webinar is the second in a series hosted by the ATSE Agriculture & Food Forum that explores agriculture and climate change.
HOSTS
Professor Snow Barlow FTSE
Dr Joanne Daly FTSE
SPEAKERS
Dr Michele Allan FTSE
Professor Richard Eckard
RECORDING
59 minutes 55 seconds
HOSTS
Professor Snow Barlow FTSE
Chair of the ATSE Agriculture Forum
Snow Barlow is Professor of Viticulture and Horticulture at the University of Melbourne. He has been intimately involved in climate change research and policy within agricultural and food sector for more than 30 years. He was a member of the Australian delegation to the Conference of Parties in Kyoto (COP 3) that resulted in the Kyoto Protocol. Subsequently he chaired the Expert Advisory Panel of the Department of Agriculture’s Filling the Research Gap and Action on the Ground Carbon Farming Futures RDE programs.
As President of Science and Technology Australia, he was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, engineering and innovation Council chairing the development of 2 influential PMSEIC reports.
He is an ATSE Fellow and in 2009 he was awarded the ‘Australian Medal of Agricultural Science’. Snow currently chairs the ATSE Agriculture Forum and is a Commissioner of the NSW Independent Planning Commission.
Dr Joanne Daly PSM FTSE
Independent Consultant
Joanne Daly works as an independent consultant. She is a former Group Executive of Agribusiness and Chief of Division. Her activities focus on strategy for national research collections and in agricultural sciences, assisting with the developing science precinct in Canberra with the ANU in the area of transformational agriculture.
She had worked in CSIRO for over 30 years originally as a researcher in entomology. She chaired the ‘Expert Working Group on Security Australia’s Agricultural Future’ for the Australian Council of Learned Academies. She was an ACIAR Commissioner and has held a number of senior roles including Chair of the international body, GBIF, and was a member of the Biosecurity Advisory Council and the Australian e-Research Infrastructure Council. During her 2-year secondment to the Australian Public Service, she headed the Secretariat that assisted Government in setting the National Research Priorities in 2002.
SPEAKERS
Dr Michele Allan FTSE
Agriculture industry executive
Dr Michele Allan FTSE
Michele is currently Chair of the Boards of Apple and Pear Australia Limited, Charles Sturt University, the Food and Agribusiness growth Centre (FIAL), Trusted Autonomous Systems CRC and Wine Australia. She is a non-executive director of CSIRO, CRC Food Agility, Smart Sat CRC and Dairy Food Safety Victoria. She is also chairing the Modern Manufacturing Initiative Assessment Committee for the Translation and Integration streams
Her prior board roles include Meat and Livestock Australia, Grain Growers Limited, Tasmanian Irrigation, Innovation and Science Australia, Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Forest and Wood Products Australia, William Angliss Institute, Callaghan Innovation (NZ) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. Michele held executive roles with Amcor Limited, Kraft Foods, Bonlac Foods Limited, ICI, Tasmanian Bioinformatics Centre of Excellence Tasmania, Johnson and Johnson and Nestle. Michele has a Bachelor of Applied Science from University of Technology Sydney, Master of Management of Technology from Melbourne University, Master Commercial Law Deakin University and Doctorate from RMIT. She is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
Professor Richard Eckard
Director, Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, University of Melbourne
Richard’s research focuses on carbon farming, managing extreme climate events and options for agriculture to respond to a changing climate. Richard is a science advisor to the Australian, New Zealand, UK and EU governments, the International Livestock Research Institute and the UN FAO on climate change adaptation, mitigation and policy development in agriculture. Richard leads a network within the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gasses and is a member of the Greenhouse Gas and Animal Agriculture international science committee. Richard was recently named on the Reuters list of the world’s 1,000 most influential climate scientists.