Climate change mitigation in the Australian agricultural sector: How can public policy drive adoption of greenhouse gas abatement measures by farmers?
Climate change mitigation in the agricultural sector will be a key component of any pathway to deep emissions reduction in Australia. The recent Beyond Zero Emissions Land Use Plan demonstrates how dramatic emission reductions in the agricultural sector could occur by presenting six areas for greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement. This thesis investigates how public policy could begin to operationalise this vision. It addresses three central aims: 1) to identify barriers to adopting further GHG abatement measures for the six case study farmers from the Beyond Zero Emissions Land Use Plan 2) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of policy efforts to overcome these barriers to-date and 3) to provide recommendations for key aspects of policy design to help overcome these barriers in the future. These aims were addressed through a literature review, a policy review and semi-structured interviews with the six case study farmers and nine policy officials from Commonwealth and State government departments, as well as NRM Regions Australia and the National Farmers Federation. Seven key barriers to farmers adopting GHG abatement measures were identified. These were: 1. Financial costs of the change; 2. Complexity or novelty of the change; 3. Lack of capacity to change due to other pressures; 4. Inadequate level of information; 5. Sociocultural context not conducive to change; 6. Inconsistent government policy (policy goals and delivery); and 7. Complexity of government policy. While recent decades have seen important developments in natural resource management policy, and more recently the introduction of the Carbon Farming Initiative and Emissions Reduction Fund, policy efforts to-date do not adequately address these barriers and often act to reinforce them. To overcome the barriers to behavioural change amongst farmers, and achieve the scale of emission reduction proposed in the Beyond Zero Emissions Land Use Plan, policy efforts with increased ambition and resolve are required. This thesis provides recommendations to this effect, considering key aspects of policy design including policy framing, policy instruments and policy delivery, as well as policy integration.
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