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National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research

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The NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald launched the Office for Rural Greenhouse Gas Studies on 20 February 2008 as a new joint initiative between UNE and NSW DPI. The Office was subsequently renamed the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Research (NCRGGR) and will operate under the PIIC agreement.

Prof. Bob Martin and The Hon. Ian Macdonald

The NSW Minister of Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald (right), with Professor Bob Martin at the announcement of the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research.

NCRGGR will provide solutions to the challenges posed to primary industries by climate change, and take advantage of the opportunities climate change presents. The Centre is based at UNE, Armidale, with activities undertaken throughout NSW.  The Centre will undertake research and deliver solutions on a range of key issues – including methane reduction from ruminant livestock, carbon sequestration in forestry and agriculture, seasonal risk management for primary producers and technologies for second-generation biofuels from biomass.

The Centre will also educate and inform primary producers about the projected impacts of climate change and the challenges and opportunities it poses, as well as informing the debate on key policy issues – such as emission trading. Research priorities for the NCRGGR are outlined below.

Assessing the impacts of climate change
Better understanding the likely impact of climate change on key NSW primary industries, at the regional level, through:  

  • Development of regional climate change models;
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for assessing the risk of climate change; 
  • Decision support systems to assist primary industries cope with climate variability; 
  • Assessment of key systems to test the coping range to be extended by adaptation strategies; 
  • Assessment of the socioeconomic impacts of climate change.

Climate change adaptation

  • Developing a capacity for the primary industry sector to adapt to climate change and, where possible, take advantage of any opportunities that arise;
  • Developing resilient agricultural, forestry and fisheries production systems with increased capacity to cope with enhanced atmospheric CO2; increased climate variability; changes in climate parameters; and indirect impacts (e.g. fire, pests and diseases, more extreme events) anticipated under climate change; 
  • Researching sustainable management of natural (wild harvest fisheries and native forests) systems, to ensure that they are both ecologically healthy and economically productive under the predicted impacts of climate change.

Climate change mitigation
Developing options for primary industries to mitigate emissions through:  

  • Reducing emissions (e.g. methane from livestock, nitrous oxide from cropping soils);
  • Sequestering carbon (e.g. in soil or above ground biomass, geo-sequestration);
  • Substituting bioenergy for fossil fuels (e.g. methane from animal wastes, or bioenergy from biomass); and, 
  • Developing the supporting science to facilitate mitigation through emissions trading.

In developing agricultural and forestry systems to help mitigate climate change, the following key criteria need to be considered:

  1. Life-cycle greenhouse gas and energy balance to ensure systems deliver net benefits;
  2. Sustainability of production systems, including broader impacts on the environment; and 
  3. Adaptation capacity of new systems.