Australia’s emissions pathway – costs, benefits, and priorities for red meat processors

AMPC commissioned this report to investigate the risks and opportunities for the red meat processing sector associated with climate change policy and actions that red meat processors can take to reduce their climate policy-related risk and costs and maximise the benefits of reducing emissions. 

The report identifies three scenarios for sector-wide emissions reduction and provides recommendations for red meat processors and policymakers. 

Recommendations for red meat processors: 

Know your emissions: develop systems to measure, monitor, and actively manage your emissions so you can track any changes to your emissions profile. This step also enables action on the following recommendations. 

Prioritise: identify key first actions using tools such as the Implementation Pyramid in the AMPC’s Energy benchmarking tool reference to AMPC energy management plan guides to work out which emissions you should address first. 

Be prepared for changes in policy 

Plan ahead: develop a long-term plan to progressively reduce your emissions and prepare for policy changes. This enables red meat processors to take advantage of policy shifts as they occur, particularly where funding assistance becomes available. 

Collaborate: the sector can leverage the AMPC as a central coordinator for knowledge sharing, aggregation of buying power or project development and funding. Empowering the AMPC to act in these ways can overcome barriers to investment, particularly for smaller red meat processors, and allow the sector to develop more strategic approaches to opportunities.