Australia Joins UN Methane Reduction Scheme, Pledges Funding for Flatulence Pill

A cow on the bank of a farm dam in Gunnedah, northwest New South Wales on May 4, 2020. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

The Australian Labor government has signed on to the United Nation’s Global Methane Pledge that commits to cutting emissions of gas by 30 percent by 2030.

The move follows in the footsteps of 120 other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

Under the voluntary pledge, the government will roll out a series of actions to cut down methane in sectors such as energy, waste, and agriculture—flatulence and belching from livestock is the number one source of methane, according to scientists.

“By joining the Pledge, Australia will join the rest of the world’s major agricultural commodity exporters, including the United States, Brazil, and Indonesia, in identifying opportunities to reduce emissions in this hard-to-abate sector,” said Chris Bowen, the minister for climate change and energy, in a statement on Oct. 23.

Chris Bowen, Labor Party's minister for energy and climate change, speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on June 16, 2022. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Unlike New Zealand, the government has promised not to legislate or introduce any new taxes on livestock numbers to encourage take-up from farmers.

The move has received support from Fiona Simon, president of the National Farmers Federation, who said the agriculture sector was committed to sustainability.

“Farmers are already leading the charge on climate action in Australia and have earned a seat at the table, and the strong assurances and partnership provided by the government mean the pledge will not negatively impact on farmers or the agriculture sector,” she said.

Cutting Cow Flatulence, Belching the Key

A big part of the government’s methane pledge will be investment in the Methane Emissions Reduction in Livestock (MERiL) program that will provide $5 million (US$3.14 million) in funding to accelerate the development of methane-reducing pills that can be mixed in with feed and fed to livestock.

Currently, 11 projects will receive $250,000 to $750,000 funding grants. The CSIRO, Australia’s leading scientific research body, is at the forefront of development, with its FutureFeed already being sold worldwide.

Based on trials at the University of California, Davis and in Europe, around 20 grams of FutureFeed per day can cut methane from livestock by 80 to 99 percent.

Methane accounts for around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases, with a single cow estimated to belch around 220 pounds of methane a year. The gas is considered worse for the environment than carbon dioxide, with the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy saying it absorbs heat 84 times faster over a 20-year period.

Yet opposition MPs have been critical of the methane pledge, with Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton saying Australia was already doing it’s fair share on environmental issues.

“I think Australia does a lot in the environmental space—a lot more, frankly, than, say, China or India does in terms of their own emissions—and sending our country broke or sending our farmers broke is not the solution,” he told 2SM radio.

“I think [Climate Change Minister] Chris Bowen needs to be very clear here because, before the election, he gave an indication to farmers that he wasn’t going to do this, and now he is.”

Nationals MP Keith Pitt of the regional seat of Hinkler called it an “attack” on the agriculture industry.

“There is 10 times the number of feral pigs in Australia than domestic,” he previously told The Epoch Times. “This is an underhanded attack on our resources sector and agriculture. If it was about science, well, the flatulence for feral animals should be included, but it’s not.”

Australia contains some of the world’s largest feral animal populations—partly due to the lack of large land predators—which do not come under government moves to cut methane emissions.

The country is estimated to contain 400,000 wild horses, five million donkeys, 150,000 water buffalo, one million camels, and 24 million feral pigs—in comparison, the United States contains just six million feral pigs.

The methane pledge comes amid a wider push to reduce emissions across the country by the Labor government, including a 43 percent emissions reduction target by 2030.