A LEADING CSIRO researcher has challenged the central claim of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's climate policy, warning that the coalition's goals for storing carbon in soil are not supported by science.
According to The Australian Financial Review, under the Coalition's policy farmers would be paid $8 to $10 a tonne to sequester an annual 85 million tonnes of carbon in their soils by 2020, reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
But the director of the CSIRO's Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, Brian Keating, said the science was not yet advanced enough to confirm whether this abatement could be achieved in practice.
"The potential is there technically, theoretically. But the practical possibilities and what price you would need on carbon to make that attractive, I don't believe that work has been done yet," Dr Keating said.
He warned that, in some cases, reducing emissions from farming could compromise productivity.
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