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Emissions reduction - pathways and opportunities

17 August 2020
Emissions reduction - pathways and opportunities
 

This project evaluated the likely cost implications for red meat processors under three different greenhouse gas emission pathways:

1. Australia’s current national emission reduction targets;
2. The Paris Goals; and
3. The red meat industry’s carbon neutral goal - CN2030.


While red meat processor emissions have been trending down for the past decade, the sector needs to better understand what can be done now to help mitigate the costs and risks associated with changes to emissions policy in the future.

Key Findings:
  • Having a plan and acting now on emissions reduction can help mitigate much larger financial and environmental costs associated with delayed action;
  • Larger red meat processing plants have more opportunities to reduce carbon emissions than smaller processors where economies of scale can be applied;
  • Opportunities for smaller processors could include aggregation of buying power from renewable energy sources (i.e. such as power purchase agreements), or the adoption of new energy efficient refrigeration technologies and processes;
  • Assistance for larger processors to help transition from natural gas to bio-gas capture & reuse, or biomass for thermal energy needs would help reduce emissions for those processors.
Previous in this focus area 23 October 2021 Update on shadow robots Next in this focus area 21 August 2016 Beef sector study finds no economic justification for increased competition regulation