THE McGowan government released its Western Australian Climate Policy on Monday, outlining plans to create a low carbon future and create jobs in clean industries to support the State's economic recovery after COVID-19.
The policy focuses on six key areas - clean manufacturing and future industries; transforming energy generation and use; storing carbon and caring for landscapes; lower carbon transport; resilient cities and regions and government leadership.
It includes actions to drive a transition to net zero emissions by 2050 in line with Australia's commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement it signed in 2016.
The key aspect for the agricultural sector was the $15 million allocated for the WA Carbon Farming Strategy and Land Restoration Program, which Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said was targeted towards the grainbelt.
The State government said the WA Carbon Farming Strategy was designed to enhance participation in carbon farming, which would be a key part of the State's commitment to work with all sectors of the economy to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The strategy would significantly increase the supply of WA carbon offsets and capitalise on the growing local and international demand for carbon credits.
The Carbon Farming and Land Restoration Program would support carbon farming projects on freehold land, develop new agricultural management techniques, restore natural landscapes and support sustainability of the regions.
Ms MacTiernan said the Southern Rangelands already had projects underway in which destocking areas of land would see it self-regenerate, whereas in the agricultural regions landholders needed more incentives to set aside land for planting trees.
"We already have 59 approved carbon projects in the Southern Rangelands," Ms MacTiernan said.
"The agricultural lands are quite different.
"The economics are different and the situations very different.
"People would be foregoing land that they could be getting $3000 a hectare to plant eucalyptus and not be able to break even for seven years.
"There needs to be some intervention which makes up a big part of the fund."
Ms MacTiernan said the government would purchase carbon credits upfront so that landholders had early access to the benefits of them when they come into effect.
"It will be a circulating fund to cover out of pocket expenses," she said.
Ms MacTiernan said the program had been approved by the Clean Energy Regulator.
Another part of the program was finding new methodologies that might work in WA.
"At the moment there's no approved soil carbon methodologies that work well for WA soils," Ms MacTiernan said.
"We'll be looking at how we overcome that by holding pilots and trials to get approved methods."
Ms MacTiernan said some of the projects would include a long-term carbon land strategy to improve soil and water retention.
She said while the government would be actively engaged in the program, the Carbon Farming Unit in the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development would also be involved in much of the work.
Ms MacTiernan was hoping to start receiving expressions of interest by January so project funding decisions could be made by the second quarter of 2021.
"We already have some carbon accumulators such as Woodside interested in carbon offsets - we are looking at how we can make it commercially viable for farmers," she said.
"It's about the sustainability of the regions, particularly the grainbelt.
"The southern half of the State is predicted to experience a hotter and drier climate.
"The reduced rainfall in parts has been accelerated by land clearing.
"This is part of the global effort to reduce atmospheric carbon and increased cover in that area will help increase the rainfall in that area."
Ms MacTiernan said there was an increased focus on reducing the carbon footprint - with demand for that by consumers.
"We need to stop looking at climate change as a negative and look at it as a positive," she said.
The WA Climate Policy coincides with the release of the $21m Electric Vehicle Strategy, a new plan to support improved uptake of electric vehicles and facilitate a low emissions transport sector, including an expanded charging network and electric government fleet vehicles.
The policy also includes a suite of initiatives to support adaptation planning and climate resilience, including a $3.1m Climate Science Program to develop improved climate change projections.
The State government has allocated more than $100m towards the 100 megawatt big battery to support integration of more renewable energy and improve grid security, which will have the capacity to power 160,000 homes for two hours, and will be housed at the decommissioned Kwinana Power Station.
It's expected a contract will be awarded by May 2021 and the battery could be operational by September 2022.
