AUSTRALIAN Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF) Sustainability Steering Group (SSG) chair Mark Davie has urged the nation’s beef sector to address vegetation management in a way similar to the Carbon Neutral by 2030 initiative (CN30), to more powerfully demonstrate environmental performance and the link between active grazing land management and positive sustainability outcomes.

Mark Davie

Speaking at the Rural Press Club of Queensland in Brisbane, Mr Davie said the ABSF and the CN30 initiative had proven a powerful tool in driving Australia’s global leadership in the important discussion surrounding emissions management and had won the hearts and minds of key stakeholder groups.

“Our industry set a goal for no net release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere by 2030, and we committed to this in 2017 – well before businesses and governments, which have only really started to set strategies in the past 12 months,” Mr Davie said.

“We defined a problem and our obstacles and set about driving research and development to address the challenge, informed by the drivers of industry productivity and cost. Because of this initiative we are now leading the global narrative on emissions reduction.

“CN30 is already winning hearts and minds. We must now be even more ambitious, define our goal for vegetation management and resource how we are going to solve this issue in an open and transparent way.

“Very few industries have an opportunity to feed the world and execute a response to global challenges the way beef can. We are a carbon sink and we, as an industry, can actively manage the biogenic carbon cycle.”

Mr Davie said industry must take a proactive approach to presenting its solution to feed the world while addressing climate change.

To view Mr Davie’s full speech click here