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Singapore: Fresh from rubbing shoulders with Prince William, Sea Forest founder Sam Elsom has expressed frustration with the Australian government’s slowness in embracing his vision to drastically reduce methane emissions.
The Tasmanian biotechnology company was a finalist at the Earthshot Prize – the rich environmental awards set up by the prince – in a tip of the hat to its cultivation of a native Australian seaweed shown to cut methane production in cattle and sheep when added to their feed.
The methane-fuelled belching and flatulence of cows and other livestock is responsible for an estimated 14 per cent of human-induced global greenhouse gases.
Prince William with Sea Forest founder Sam Elsom (second from left) and other Earthshot Prize finalists at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay.Credit: Getty Images
While the Australian start-up was not one of the five global winners – each of whom received £1 million ($1.9 million) – at the awards ceremony in Singapore, Elsom said the exposure from reaching the final field of 15 had intensified interest in its ambitious plans.
Sea Forest is growing the seaweed asparagopsis on a 1800-hectare marine lease north of Hobart to make the supplement, which is already being fed to 10,000 cattle and helping to reduce the production of methane by ruminant animals.
But Elsom says the company could scale up substantially and thus help the government honour a pledge made by Australia and 150 other countries to decrease methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
He said he had been encouraged by Labor’s openness to listening and engaging with the venture, with several members of the Albanese government having visited the Sea Forest site in Tasmania.
But he questioned why it had taken so long to form the Carbon Abatement Integrity Committee, the new oversight body recommended in January by the Chubb review of Australia’s carbon credit system. The committee will receive submissions on proposed new methods under the Australian Carbon Credit Units Scheme.
Elsom speaks to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the government’s Jobs and Skills Summit in September last year.Credit: Olive +Maeve
“We have a draft methodology that would deliver carbon credits to farmers that would help incentivise products like methane abatement supplements, and that would really get the wheels spinning,” Elsom said. “But the government has been incredibly slow on that front and that is frustrating.
“We know it can have a huge environmental impact, and we know in Australia we have a strategic opportunity ahead of the rest of the world to take this with both hands and really deliver emissions reduction.”
Prince Wiliam visits Singapore’s TreeTop Walk with Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images
Elsom said he was encouraged to have been contacted by the office of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as it looks at agricultural emissions reductions policy but hopes to see more progress.
The government accepted the 16 recommendations of the independent panel led by former chief scientist Ian Chubb, including the suggestion that the development process for new carbon credit methods be led by proponents rather than the government.
It has set out an interim framework for the scheme and appointed a chair for the incoming but yet-to-be-established integrity body, which will replace the existing Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC).
It has been eager not to rush the reworking of the controversial scheme to avoid future concerns about its probity.
“The ERAC will continue independently to consider and provide advice on the integrity of methods while the government consults on the broader reforms until the new integrity committee’s structure and functions are legislated,” a spokesperson for Bowen said.
The government is funding $29 million in research in order for farmers to conduct trials on methane-reducing feed technologies
Sea Forest plans to step up production to 7000 tonnes of seaweed a year by 2028 – three times its current output – and has engaged in trials in Northern Ireland amid plans for expansion into Britain and Europe.
The company, whose investors include Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, has a tie-up with burger chain Grill’d – the restaurant chain has added grass and seaweed-fed beef offerings to its menu.
In Singapore, Prince William issued a rallying cry against the forces of climate change denialism and defeatism, saying the achievements of the Earthshot winners and finalists were a reminder that “the spirit of ingenuity and the ability to inspire change surrounds us all”.
“I choose to believe that future generations will look back on this decade as the point at which we globally took collective action for our planet … the moment we refused to accept the voices of denial and defeatism and instead became the architects of change towards a healthy and sustainable world,” he said.
Winners were announced in five categories: protecting and restoring nature, clean air, reviving oceans, waste eradication and tackling climate change. Each received £1 million and a year of technical support to help take their projects to the next level.
The prize recipients were Accion Andina, a South American initiative to protect native forests in the Andes Mountains; Hong Kong-based GRST, which has developed a way to build and recycle lithium batteries for electric cars; global non-profit WildAid Marine Program, for its efforts to combat illegal fishing; India’s S4S Technologies, whose solar-powered dryers and processing equipment help farmers preserve food; and US-based Boomitra, for promoting land restoration on three continents with its soil carbon credits market.
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