Farmers for Climate Action

Giving a platform to farmers on the frontline of climate change

Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) is a movement of farmers, agricultural leaders and rural Australians working to ensure farmers are a key part of the solution to climate change. As the only farmer-led organisation that specialises in climate action, FCA works across the agricultural and climate sectors to manage risks and find opportunities to adapt to, and mitigate, climate change.

Issue

Agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change, yet there has been little resourcing to support the agriculture industry in Australia to adapt. In the absence of a clear, coordinated approach to climate change, agricultural emissions are unlikely to be substantively reduced within a meaningful timeframe and opportunities for carbon capture are not likely to be realised. 

Response

FCA has been working with farmers to build awareness of the effect of climate change on farming families and shift the prevailing narrative to see farmers as part of the solution rather than an obstacle to climate action. This work has served as the foundation for FCA to build bipartisan support for a national strategy on climate change and agriculture.

Progress update

UPDATED MARCH 2022

• Growing support for net-zero by 2050: Backed by National Farmers’ Federation in August 2020 and the National Party in October 2021.
• National strategy on climate change and agriculture: In response to momentum built by FCA and other advocates, the Federal Government has developed the National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy 2021-2025, published in October 2021.

What the Impact Fund’s support means

“Farmers are on the frontlines of climate change and, as some of the most trusted spokespeople on the issue, they are changing the conversation on climate change in rural Australia … Impact Funders should take great pride in what we have achieved so far.” 

Read case study in Making Change Together: Five years of the Impact Fund

Grants

• 2018 Large Grants round: $125,000 for core funding (over three years)