Farmers went to Queensland Parliament House on September 10 to tell MPs, bankers and energy industry representatives that they want a clean future, so they can keep farming forever.
The action was organised by Farmers for Climate Action.
The message they sought to give is that renewable energy supporters are the quiet majority: 40% of the country’s electricity grid is already powered by clean energy and many farmers are building drought resilience by supplementing their income with solar, wind and battery projects.
Typical payments to farmers are $40,000 a year for each wind turbine and $1500 a year for each hectare of solar panels. That is a game changer for a lot of farmers as we try to adapt to changing weather patterns.
We also wanted to thank MPs for their bipartisan support for 75% emission reductions in Queensland by 2035 and to ask them to keep working together to reduce emissions and help us switch to 100% renewables over this crucial decade.
My message was to tell them that renewables do not use water to generate energy and they do not pollute water like coal, gas and nuclear do.
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I also wanted to ask them to help close down the salt dump outside Chinchilla. Approvals have been given to store 20 million tonnes of coal seam gas waste salt, 50 metres uphill from Rocky Creek, which feeds into the Murray Darling Basin, one of Australia’s main food bowls and the drinking water source for many regional communities on the east.
There is still no safe way to store this salt and it does not break down.
[Elena Garcia is a regenerative grazier in the Western Downs in Queensland.]