Discussion

Discuss the carbon footprint of the Australian cotton industry. The aim is to summarize the ‘cradle to grave analysis' of producing carbon from cotton production in Australia, exploring the current quantification and understanding. The intension is not to set an impossible task; many parts of this cycle might be poorly quantified or too difficult to get precise information about. It is OK to identify these and move on, but there have been several recent research efforts to gain this sort of information, so it will be a useful exercise to explore where things are up to. Little of your manual deals with this question directly but several sections are important, particularly in the topic on climate change. You will find many Government reports about this for several industries. Use these to provide ideas on what is needed for the cotton analysis. The green house gas calculator, like that on the Cotton CRC website can estimate CO2 production from cotton producers would be useful for discussion. There have also been studies on whether polyester or cotton garments have the largest carbon footprint (Australian Cotton Conference 2010)