Green bank invests $50 million to cut farming emissions

Australia’s inexperienced financial institution has joined forces with a Canadian pension fund to cut back the carbon footprint of farming.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will make investments $50 million in Wilga Farming, an agriculture funding car for sustainable farming and carbon sequestration.

Alongside the worldwide funding group CDPQ, a complete of $200 million will bankroll Wilga to assist scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions and enhance productiveness within the high-emitting sector.

The first asset bought by Wilga is The Glen, a 1200-hectare property close to Delungra in northern NSW, the place farmers will scale back artificial fertiliser use and enhance irrigation, grazing, and soil carbon administration.

“Bringing down on-farm costs through efficient energy, fertiliser and water use is good for business, while also being good for the environment,” Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt stated on Thursday.

Wilga shall be managed by Gunn Agri Partners, an Australian fund supervisor and land operator targeted on sustainable farm administration.

Agriculture is chargeable for greater than 15 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gasoline emissions.

With methane emissions and fertiliser use the principle contributors to its carbon footprint, the agriculture sector must do greater than change from diesel to renewable power technology.

CEFC head of pure capital Heechung Sung stated there was “enormous untapped potential” for brand spanking new funding in sustainable agriculture as a part of a web zero financial system.

“The long-term impact of climate change on the agriculture sector and its critical role in food and fibre production is an important problem to tackle in a world that needs to rapidly decarbonise,” Ms Sung stated.

Supporting regenerative farming strategies and improved land administration methods additionally results in broader “nature-positive” outcomes, she stated.

CDPQ and the CEFC have additionally taken a minority stake in Gunn, enabling them to affect decarbonisation efforts throughout its $750 million portfolio.