ENVIRONMENT EMISSIONS
Making a contribution: The 2 million hectares of woody vegetation on livestock farms are estimated to offset 90% of their total emissions.
The climate neutrality question Words by: Steven Cranston
A
fter another tough year of negative headlines it was reassuring to see the first green shoots of commonsense tentatively appearing on the vexed subject of agricultural emissions. They came by way of a Beef + Lamb NZ report demonstrating their sector is well on the way to carbon neutrality. It was found that the 2 million hectares of woody vegetation on sheep and beef farms are estimated to offset 90% of their total emissions. This report is significant as it represents a shift in thinking. Now instead of only counting the emissions produced by farming in isolation, we see how these emissions are also simultaneously balanced by carbon uptake. What this report shows is how farms work in the real world and will hopefully bring in a new era of farmers getting full recognition for the carbon they sequester on their properties. 64
Even more remarkable is that the sheep and beef sector has got to 90% carbon neutral with both hands tied behind their back. For a start, applying the term ‘carbon neutral’ to agricultural emissions is meaningless. We are simply comparing apples with oranges via an accounting system not designed for that purpose. Methane is a short-lived gas and behaves completely differently in the atmosphere. NZ agriculture has effectively stabilised its methane emissions and according to the best science to hand, 80% of farmers’ total emissions have no warming effect on the climate. This represents a major missed opportunity by Beef + Lamb to correct the record before farmers are needlessly lumped with a tax on methane. A bolder, more progressive Beef & Lamb would have seen their sector has in fact been dealt a very strong hand. In total, NZ farmers emitted 37,697 tonnes of CO2 -e (CO2-e = CO2 equivalent) in 2018, of which 29,426t was methane.
The last five years of data indicate an average reduction in methane emissions of 0.25% a year, ensuring a negligible impact on climate. Therefore, the industry only emitted 8271t CO2 -e that can be considered climate warming, predominantly nitrous oxide. Now here’s where it gets interesting. Beef + Lamb’s research found that carbon sequestration from woody vegetation on their farms alone was 10,394t CO2-e at the lower end and is possibly as high as 19,600t. Our humble sheep and beef farmers can easily offset all the annual warming produced by the entire agricultural industry. Unbeknown to most hill country farmers, and apparently their sector representatives, incoming climate regulations could and should see them profit handsomely. They should be selling carbon credits to a dairy industry in need of offsets, officially making the entire industry climate neutral. This would be a boon for dairy as well,
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2021
