New South Wales

Declining soil organic carbon could undermine state's commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

Some independent candidates running in key Sydney seats are calling for an end to logging of native forests. Jacqui Scruby, an independent running for the seat of Pittwater, said it “doesn’t make sense to be setting emissions reduction targets and then subsidising native forest logging”. “The report highlights the importance of turning around the massive increase in land clearing under the Coalition government in the last five years,” he said. “If the government wanted to improve the condition of forests, the best thing you could do is stop remnant clearing and large-scale commercial harvesting of native forests,” he said. The commission said there was a risk of a cycle of declining soil organic carbon if there were repeated fires “or other disturbances such as grazing, timber harvesting or land clearing”. “In this case, forests will become a net carbon emitter in the coming decades, undermining key government commitments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” the report states.