RESEARCH
The Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Inventory compiles and calculates greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in New Zealand.
Funding the GHG inventory By Samantha Tennent
The Government has more than $1m to help organisations research and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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round half of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in New Zealand come from the agricultural sector and it is essential they are effectively measured to help determine ways to tackle them. And there is money for it. The Greenhouse Gas Inventory Fund (GHGIR) was established in the early 2000s and applications for the 2021-22 funding round have just closed. “We have $1.1 million available for new projects that aim to improve the Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Inventory,” director of investment programmes at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Steve Penno says. “The inventory compiles and calculates greenhouse gas emissions from
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agriculture in New Zealand and it is an important tool in enabling New Zealand’s reporting to the United Nations under the Paris Climate Agreement. “It also informs policy decisions, improves the accuracy of our inventory and helps our agriculture and forestry sectors to manage their greenhouse gas emissions.” Since its establishment, GHGIR has funded over 80 projects and most of these have been related to agriculture, although nearly 30 have focused on forestry. The fund was independently reviewed in 2020, which resulted in some changes, with more to come. “The fund is significant to support the development of land-use projections, including afforestation and deforestation,
which show how carbon accounting rules lead to changes in land-use,” he says. Priorities for the 2021 funding round include methane, modelling and data, as well as land-use emissions. There is a focus on policy-driven research and reviews and updates to existing inventory items. Four projects from AgResearch were approved in the last round, looking at a range of topics. From exploring the total number and proportion of dairy cattle grazing on slope classes to the nutrient transfer model, as well as nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from nitrogen fertilisers. AbacusBio have been analysing lifestyle blocks to compile the number and characteristics of lifestyle blocks
DAIRY FARMER
August 2021
