Johnny Machon1, Christophe d’Abbadie1
1Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Perth, Australia
Biography:
Johnny Machon is an economist with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), Western Australia (WA). His current work focuses on WA agriculture’s emissions, as well as the decisions and incentives WA producers face as they transition towards a more sustainable future.
Abstract:
Prior to joining DPIRD in 2022, he spent five years with the Danish Ministry of Agriculture, identifying and enabling cost-efficient ways for farmers to adapt to national and European Union sustainability targets. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen.
This paper presents new estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from six of Western Australia’s (WA) agricultural industries, including pre-farm emissions from the manufacture of inputs such as fertilisers, chemicals and purchased feed. Total on-farm and pre-farm emissions are estimated to have been about 14.2–14.9 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (Mt CO2e) per annum (p.a.) over the period from 2019-20 to 2021-22. Emissions originated largely in the beef (5.0–5.2 Mt CO2e p.a.), grains (4.4–5.1 Mt CO2e p.a.) and sheep (3.8–3.9 Mt CO2e p.a.) industries. Methane from enteric fermentation accounted for about 45 % of estimated total emissions, with some indication that this share may be decreasing over time through lower livestock numbers and increasing grain production. As grain yields increase, pre-farm emissions will be increasingly important to the WA agriculture sector’s mitigation efforts. WA studies suggest that strategies exist that can improve the efficiency and profitability of agricultural businesses while delivering mitigation co-benefits, in terms of both on-farm and pre-farm emissions.