ARABLE
Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions Who needs to do what by when…(and how)?
WORDS SUPPLIED BY FAR
KEY POINTS • New Zealand has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030 as part of the Paris Agreement. • Methane and nitrous oxide from farms make up about half of our national greenhouse gas profile. • Emissions are priced through the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS). The ETS currently excludes agricultural emissions, which are yet to be priced. • A programme called He Waka Eke Noa has been developed to establish a relevant New Zealand response to climate change, including agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
The process to date Over the last 25 years, farmers have improved their production efficiency, and gas emissions per unit of product have reduced by about 1% each year. These improvements have helped stabilise methane and nitrous oxide emissions, but stabilisation is not enough; we need to find practical and cost-effective ways of reducing these emissions. In May 2018, New Zealand’s Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) began work to inform policies to help reduce agricultural greenhouse gases. Not surprisingly, they found there were no easy answers, but, on balance, they concluded that the best way to motivate all farmers to reduce emissions on their farms is by pricing them. The benefits of a pricing mechanism include: • Giving farmers autonomy to choose what actions to take on their farm • Rewarding those farmers who take positive actions and those who go the extra mile • Can be managed to ensure that emissions reduce in line with national targets 40
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• Likely to result in emission-reductions at the lowest cost to the sector. The ICCC also concluded that emissions from livestock should be priced at the farm-level, whereas emissions from nitrogen fertiliser should be priced at the fertiliser manufacturer and importer level. These ICCC recommendations went to the government, who, in consultation with the agricultural sectors and iwi, have developed a five-year programme to make sure an emissions pricing scheme is workable and effective. The programme is called He Waka Eke Noa (our future in our hands).
He Waka Eke Noa He Waka Eke Noa combines industry, Māori and Government resources, expertise and knowledge in a partnership to support farmers and growers to adapt to climate change and measure, manage and reduce emissions from their farm. The partnership is working together to develop a framework, by 2025, to equip farmers and growers to measure, manage and reduce on-farm
agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, to enable sustainable food and fibre production for future generations. The aim is that by 2025 all farmers and growers are i) including climate change mitigation and adaptation in their farm business and environment plans; ii) able to calculate their net greenhouse gas emissions and iii) incentivised to take action on climate change through an appropriate pricing mechanism for emissions.
The partnership The Partnership will provide farmers and growers with a toolkit over the next five years, including: • guidance on how to manage and reduce on-farm agricultural emissions; • a farm plan module for planning the steps to be taken on the farm to reduce emissions; • a system for measuring and reporting on emissions;
