Zooming through an emissions mission

Senior principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Prolific agricultural scientist and climate researcher.

Policy advisor to the United Nations and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Biochar enthusiast.

Annette Cowie has contributed to our understanding of climate change and its impacts throughout her career. From the productivity of soil and greenhouse gas accounting to carbon farming, bioenergy, food security and desertification, her influence and interests extend from the local to the global.

A graduate of UNE’s Rural Science program and disciple of renowned systems thinker Professor Bill McClymont, Annette has been burning the midnight oil in Zoom sessions with some 280 fellow specialists internationally. Their task? To complete the latest IPCC assessment of science on climate change mitigation, which will inform the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“There are ways we can reduce emissions and also ways to sequester carbon, and we need both globally,” Annette said. “Some people think if we place too much emphasis on carbon sequestration, it will take attention away from reducing fossil fuel use.

“We stress that there is no ‘get out of jail free’ card. We explain the potential downsides from carbon dioxide removal strategies that could lead to planting massive areas of biomass crops or harvesting pristine forests to make biochar or building huge numbers of direct air capture plants everywhere, requiring solar panels across the planet to provide the energy.

“Our work will affect the credibility of different mitigation options and their acceptance by governments and business around the world.”

So, we thought who better to ask to pinpoint the key environmental problems our planet is grappling with and where the potential solutions lie.

How would you describe the current predicament we’re in?

“We know that climate change is already having catastrophic effects and we need to take drastic, rapid action to reduce emissions,” Annette said. “Many governments around the world have pledged to reduce their emissions, but the IPCC has added up the cumulative effect of those current commitments, and it’s nowhere near good enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep warming under 2 degrees Celsius.

“There are a number of different ways that we can strengthen the current approaches to reduce emissions and sequester carbon that mean that it is, at least theoretically, possible to meet the climate stabilisation goals of the agreement.”

it is, at least theoretically, possible to meet the climate stabilisation goals of the [Paris] agreement.

So what are the top 5 challenges we face?

1. Climate change: “It sits above everything and impacts every aspect of natural and human systems. The next four points, especially land degradation and biodiversity loss, are intertwined with climate change.”
2. Land degradation: “Soil contains a lot of carbon. If we degrade land through poor management, that carbon goes into the atmosphere and worsens climate change. On the other hand, if we look after our land well, we will sequester more carbon, which is good for the climate and soil fertility.”
3. Biodiversity loss: “Unless we tackle climate change, we will continue to lose species as their habitat disappears. On the other hand, restoring ecosystems is a win-win for climate and biodiversity.”
4. Plastics pollution: “We need to look at our whole resource use and what happens end-of-life. As we stop using fossil fuels we will need to use bio-based plastics and apply a circular economy approach that reduces consumption in the first place, recycles better and finds ways to upcycle materials rather than discarding them.”
5. Resource depletion: “Our current practices export nutrients from farmland in products, reducing soil fertility. We need to recover nutrients from wastewater, and get them back on the land. Rare earths and lithium will be increasingly required for electric vehicles and we can’t keep mining more virgin materials to make more solar panels and wind turbines. We urgently need to find ways to recycle them.

So how do we mitigate against these challenges? 

“We can’t tackle the problems in isolation, as we’ve done in the past, because the problems and solutions are intertwined. An integrated, coordinated approach is needed. There are trade-offs in many of the choices we need to make, but if we tackle the issues simultaneously, we can find solutions that minimise the trade-offs.”

1. Climate change: “There are many things we can do as individuals to reduce our emissions (like modifying our transport choices and houses, and reducing food waste) but what matters most are the decisions by governments and companies. Using our collective power to influence their policies is the most powerful thing we can do as individuals to get across the message that we care about climate change. This will help to ensure that we are not, for instance, locking in fossil fuel infrastructure but, instead, developing policies that create incentives for the adoption of low-carbon technologies.”
2. Land degradation: “Here we are talking about farmers using sustainable land management practices, that increase soil organic matter which builds fertility and resilience, and contributes to climate change mitigation at the same time. Or planting trees strategically, which can reduce erosion and run-off into waterways, and support biodiversity.”
3. Biodiversity: “Protecting and restoring bushland and revegetating marginal farmland will provide habitat. Sustainable intensification on the more productive land, using chemicals and fertilisers carefully, can reduce the pressure to clear more land.”
4. Plastic pollution: “Choose reusables, ensure plastics are recycled and consider waste-to-energy as a solution for material that can’t be recycled, such as mixed municipal waste. There are highly efficient, extremely clean facilities that burn waste to generate electricity, in place of coal-fired power. That’s a solution we need to start accepting in Australia.”
5. Resource depletion: “We need to recover nutrients from waste water and use biosolids on our farmland across Australia. Biochar is made by heating organic matter in a low-oxygen environment which creates a product like charcoal, that can be used as a soil amendment. The heating process resolves the problems of microplastics and organic chemical contaminants, producing a product that is safe to put on farmland, and replaces the key nutrients we are losing from our soils.”

In conclusion

“Everything we do has an impact on the planet. Our current lifestyles are destroying it. But there are many ways we can do things better.  As individuals and in policy development, we need to think about the flow-on effects of our choices,” Annette said. “When you have an opportunity to influence an outcome, make the most of it.”

So what keeps you hopeful?

“Lots of good people trying hard and working together to find solutions,” Annette said. “There are many things we can do to tackle climate change that are feasible and affordable. We are constrained only by political will, and the inertia of our current infrastructure, which many countries are now addressing. There are effective solutions available and many work simultaneously to solve several problems, so the challenge is not as big as it seems.”

There are effective solutions available and many work simultaneously to solve several problems, so the challenge is not as big as it seems.”