On Sunday, more than 25,000 representatives from around the world converged in Glasgow, charged with the small task of negotiating, discussing, and planning the future of the climate of our planet.

Glasgow is the 26^th iteration of the Conference of Parties (COP), and is taking place from October 31 to November 12.

The history of COP

COPs serve as an annual meeting to assess progress in addressing the global challenge of the climate crisis under the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995, and the conferences have had a chequered history. The 2009 COP in Copenhagen ended disastrously, after a leaked draft agreement that placed unfair burdens on developing nations spiraled talks into disarray and drew controversy.

This ‘Danish text’ was also criticized for abandoning the Kyoto protocol; an agreement reached in Japan at the 1992 COP that set in place greenhouse gas reduction obligations, emissions trading, and clean development mechanisms.

COP21 in Paris in 2015 signalled another global landmark with big implications for this year’s conference. Since the industrial revolution, global temperatures have risen by about 1.1°C, and about 1.5°C in Australia. In Paris, global governments made legally-binding commitments to limit global temperatures to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, whilst trying to pursue a lower increase of 1.5°C.

However, the national targets made by individual countries are non-binding, and widely recognised as scientifically inadequate. If these nationally determined contributions are met, global temperatures would rise by more than 3°C by 2100. At such an increase, catastrophe looms in the form of more severe weather events, land degradation, extinction and rising sea levels.

The broad acknowledgement that these 2015 pledges lacked any real strength spurred the decision to require each nation to refresh their targets every five years. That five-year milestone arrived in 2020, but the pandemic led to COP26 being postponed until 2021.

Why is COP26 important?

Despite COVID-19 pauses, greenhouse gases hit record levels in 2020, and are increasing at a higher rate than ever before.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in August this year concluded the window for limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C is narrowing fast.

Due to the fact that greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for nearly a century, global emissions need to peak as soon as possible then be reduced dramatically this decade so that cumulative levels don’t surpass the 1.5°C threshold.

COP26 hopes to focus on how these lofty goals will be achieved by countries working together toward solutions, across issues like climate financing, the phasing-out of coal and agricultural emissions.

The EU, US, UK, and other countries have stepped-up their climate commitments in the lead up to Glasgow, leading to the most significant jump in ambition by more countries than ever before.

UN representatives, scientists, and global leaders have conceded that even these new commitments will fall short of what is required, but they do expect significant progress and momentum to keep the goal of 1.5°C alive.

Australia recently announced its target of net-zero emissions by 2050, but made no changes to its heavily-criticised 2030 emission reduction target. Australia’s net-zero plan, based on existing policy or technologies that don’t yet exist, has been said to have “all the strength of a wet paper bag” by Murdoch University fire ecologist Joe Fontaine.

Nature-based solutions are one of the big-ticket items on the COP26 agenda as they are universally regarded as one of the most crucial components of the climate toolbox. Projects of this type protect and restore ecosystems.

Native reforestation and soil carbon projects have been flagged by Australia as key to its net-zero transition. Projects like our Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor continue to grow and sequester significant amounts of carbon. Recent research from ClimateWorks Australia suggests Australia’s land and agriculture could sequester four times as much carbon as they are currently.

Carbon trading was first proposed at COP3 in Kyoto, and is also marked as a focus for discussion in Scotland. The carbon market has expanded massively in recent years, including in Australia where it is entirely voluntary, with the exception of large emitters. Other regions such as the EU and New Zealand have compliance carbon markets, and whether our market will continue to remain voluntary in the future could be uncertain after COP26.

The company has offset its carbon emissions since 2006 and has successfully reduced its carbon footprint so that they take more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit.

To compensate for their carbon emissions, Cullen Wines has been buying carbon credits which support tree planting in Carbon Neutral’s Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor 400km north of Perth.

The distinguished winery is a leader in biodynamic, sustainable and solar-powered practices. Cullen Wines Managing Director and Chief Winemaker Vanya Cullen said the company’s philosophy of “quality, integrity and sustainability” led it to approach carbon solutions provider Carbon Neutral.

“It is the way forward and our little piece to balance carbon and climate change,” Ms Cullen said.

Carbon Neutral identified and calculated the emissions associated with Cullen’s day to day operations. Tractor use, agricultural practices, air miles, packaging and freight, were among the components measured.

Carbon Neutral Chief Executive Officer Ray Wilson said “the fact that Cullen Wines is now carbon negative is impressive. This is a great case study of how a business has reduced carbon intensity over time through production efficiencies and has now become ‘carbon negative’ through soil carbon sequestration.”

Carbon Neutral studied the amount of organic carbon stored in the soil of Cullens’ 31ha vineyard over the five years from 2014.

“Broadly, it is well recognised the amount of organic carbon stored in Australian soils could be increased by changing land management practices”, said Mr Wilson. “This will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase farm productivity and potentially create offsets.”

Moves towards reducing – or even eliminating – a carbon footprint align with the West Australian State Government’s push for WA farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, said Mr Wilson. The Government estimates land degradation to cost WA’s agricultural production sector more than $2 billion each year.

Cullen Wines implemented dedicated changes, including intensive soil management and composting alongside the existing biodynamic methods.

The amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) at testing sites on the Wilyabrup winery indicate that soil in the ground has increased more than 2602 tonnes between 2014 and 2019, on average 520 tonnes a year.

Wine critic and writer Ray Jordan said Cullen Wines’ focus on environmental benchmarks is to be commended.

“By any measure, winemaker Vanya Cullen’s decision to adopt a rigorous biodynamics approach in the vineyard and winery, together with other environmentally sound initiatives aimed it eliminating carbon footprint, has been a resounding success,” Mr Jordan said. “But it is in the quality and consistency of the wines that the impact is most profound. The flagship Diana Madeline is among Margaret River’s elite cabernets with its brightness and energy features of the biodynamic approach. The chardonnays share a similar status with the purity and precision capturing the best of this variety.”

“This has really opened our eyes to what you can do,” said Mr Wilson. “The numbers around soil carbon achieved by Cullen’s has astounded us.”

Cullen Wine’s environmental success shows how reducing an organisation’s carbon footprint without compromising mission or profit is within reach. Ms Cullen urges fellow growers and producers to “go carbon neutral now”.