Highlights from the Consultative Committee Meeting
More than 100 people attended the second Consultative Committee meeting for 2023, hosted by the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF) in Brisbane.
The event was an opportunity to network, provide valuable feedback, identify emerging issues and opportunities, and share valuable insights into the direction of the ABSF and the industry.
Mark Davie, Chair of the Sustainability Steering Group (SSG), welcomed participants and provided an overview of the 2023 Annual Update, revisiting the highlights and challenges. Stakeholders then provided detailed feedback on the update, focusing on the areas where the report met their expectations, and areas which can be improved. The feedback will assist the SSG in developing future reports, ensuring they remain useful to our audience. Overall, attendees rated the progress of the ABSF to date 3.92 out of 5.
Attendees including representatives from retailers, banks, investors, environment and welfare non-government organisations, agribusinesses, researchers, government, policy organisations and industry groups took part in an interactive workshop session on strategic planning, as the ABSF seeks to develop its direction over the coming years.
The day finished with presentations from Meat & Livestock Australia on the latest Consumer Sentiment research, and an overview of climate neutrality. Among the key insights from the consumer sentiment was the fact that 55% of consumers agreed that Australian cattle are farmed and raised in a humane manner, while 41% agreed that Australian beef is environmentally friendly and sustainable.
More than 90% of consumers ranked sustainability of beef as important to them but while 25% of consumers understood what carbon neutral meant, even less understood the meaning of climate neutral.
Climate neutrality is measured using a methodology called GWP*, which represents an advancement in our ability to assess the near-term warming effects of short-lived greenhouse gases over GWP100 – which is used to asses carbon neutrality.
However, GWP* has its own limitations that hold back its application and have made it unsuitable for widespread application in science policy context. Applying GWP* would benefit countries with high historic emissions. Developing countries with historically lower emissions would be heavily penalised by a GWP* measure if their emissions increased during their economic growth. For this reason, an Australian emissions reduction target based on GWP* is unlikely to hold weight for any international comparison.
The next Consultative Committee will be held in February 2024.