What is it about?

Considering its population, Australia stands among the prominent contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. To align with the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the country must target achieving net-zero emissions by approximately 2050, adhering to the stipulated carbon budget of 1% of the worldwide aggregate. Notably, spanning the past two decades, the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector has emerged as a substantial source of CO2-equivalent emissions within Australia. This sector has significant potential to substantially curtail the nation's emissions through strategic mitigation endeavours. Investigating the embodied emissions within the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector from a consumption-oriented standpoint yields greater efficacy in devising potent policy frameworks than a narrow focus on direct emissions evaluation. This research endeavour is aimed at a comprehensive dissection of the entire carbon footprint attributed to Australia's agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector in 2018. The overarching goal is pinpointing primary supply chains, industries, and products significantly contributing to these emissions. Employing an economy-wide input-output lifecycle assessment methodology through the Australian Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory (IELab) platform facilitates a meticulous disaggregation of sectors. It enables meaningful benchmarking against other sectors of the economy. The findings emanating from this analysis underscore the substantial share of the carbon footprint attributed to the utility services sector, accounting for 12.15% of Australia's cumulative carbon output in 2018. In contrast, the direct emissions within the same year constituted 20.1% overall. Noteworthy is the revelation that Utility Services and Transport and Warehousing sectors stood out as pivotal contributors to these embedded emissions. Furthermore, the scope of the research encompasses a detailed and meticulous dissection of the carbon footprint, extending across five discrete sub-sectors intricately interwoven within the domains of agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Notably, the agriculture sub-sector emerges as the most prominent catalyst for the carbon footprint of the entire sector, constituting an impressive 71.3%. This is pursued by the forestry and logging sub-sector, contributing 15% to the carbon footprint, and subsequently, the fishing, hunting, and trapping sub-sector with a share of 7.6%. The amalgamation of the aquaculture sub-sector and the sector's supporting services assumes a collective share of 6.1% within this carbon footprint assessment. Concluding this investigation, the study presents these insights and advocates for prospective mitigation measures tailored for the commercial services and manufacturing sectors within Australia's agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.

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This page is a summary of: Assessing the carbon footprint of the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry of Australia, Sustainability Accounting Management and Policy Journal, July 2024, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/sampj-08-2023-0610.
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