The NSW Farmers' Association will urge the Federal Government to ensure that any accounting system applying to agriculture under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme takes into account the full carbon cycle, including all emissions and sequestration.
Speaking from the Association's annual conference in Sydney, president Jock Laurie said the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory is based on Kyoto greenhouse gas accounting methodology.
"This represents the Government's current view of agricultural emissions, but they incorrectly describe this data as 'net' amounts," Mr Laurie said.
"The accounting construct doesn't include agricultural sinks such as the sequestration that continually occurs in soil and groundcover.
"When you try and account for the emissions from cattle, you should also consider that the grass and grain these animals live on are carbon sinks."
NSW Farmers', via the National Farmers Federation, has lobbied the Federal government about the general need to improve carbon accounting for agriculture so as to reward sequestration and to accurately reflect the net position.
"NSW farmers are committed to finding workable new ways to reduce the sector's carbon footprint and ways farmers can adopt solutions to build on our leading contribution to reducing emissions on an equitable basis, but it does need to be equitable," Mr Laurie said.
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