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The Wilderness Society says the Turnbull government should consider ending land clearing as well as cutting fossil fuel pollution. Photograph: Auscape/UIG via Getty Images
The Wilderness Society says the Turnbull government should consider ending land clearing as well as cutting fossil fuel pollution. Photograph: Auscape/UIG via Getty Images

Ending land clearing would compete with renewables for carbon abatement, analysis finds

This article is more than 6 years old

RepuTex says ceasing all land clearing by 2030 would save between 300m and 650m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions

Ending land clearing in Australia by 2030 would cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by about as much as the whole of Australia produces in a year , a new report has found.

Queensland has been clearing about 300,000ha of land a year since the Newman government weakened restrictions on land clearing there and the Palaszczuk government failed to tighten them.

Combined with clearing in other states, analysis by the research firm RepuTex found that ceasing all land clearing would save between 300m and 650m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2030.

That is a similar amount of abatement that would be achieved over a year if Australia completely stopped producing any greenhouse gases . Australia produces about 500m tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, which is expected to rise to just under 600m tonnes by 2030, the report commissioned by the Wilderness Society found.

If land clearing was stopped sooner – by 2020 – they found emissions would be cut by a further 100m tonnes, which is roughly equivalent to those produced by the entire transport sector.

The analysis also examined the role of investing another $5bn into tree-planting projects, which would cut emissions by another 200m tonnes.

The two measures combined would satisfy about 60% of Australia’s carbon abatement commitments made in Paris.

“The Australian government must consider ending land clearing and deforestation in its climate review as well as cutting fossil fuel pollution,” the Wilderness Society’s national director, Lyndon Schneiders, said.

“It is time prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and environment minister Josh Frydenberg swept aside stonewalling by the National party and got together with the states to land a grown-up plan to end land-clearing and deforestation as part of credible plan for tackling climate change into the future.

“Deforestation and land clearing has a double impact on climate change. The trees can no longer draw carbon pollution out of the air and they also release carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as they are burnt or rot.

“Ending land clearing would be a fast, cheap and effective way to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions as well as critical in protecting wildlife and biodiversity.”

  • This article was updated on 1 June to clarify the figures used on carbon abatement

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