By Eric Frykberg
The National Party is proposing to push out crunch day for farm-based greenhouse gas emissions to 2030.
At present the Government will put farmers under the Emissions Trading Scheme by 2025 unless a system of viable reductions in farm-by-farm emissions is in place by this year.
This issue has been at the heart of highly publicised arguments over the agricultural sector's banner document, He Waka Eka Noa.
But National says agriculture is the backbone of New Zealand’s economy, contributing 11% of GDP, 13% of employment and 81% of goods exports.
Local farmers are competitive and carbon-efficient, National says.
It acknowledges they also produce around half of this country’s greenhouse gas emissions, so the party wants to bring down agricultural emissions without downsizing agriculture, which would only make New Zealand poorer.
The party wants to fix this problem with biotechnologies such as methane inhibitors, by ending the ban on GE and GM technologies.
It wants farm level emissions measured by 2025 and full recognition of on-farm emissions sequestration on a robust, scientific basis.
It supports a split gas approach to keep agriculture out of the ETS. This means methane would be assessed separately from CO2. This would be in place by 2030.
There would also be limits on converting high quality farm land to forestry.
National says doing nothing is not an option but it also wants to discourage relatively clean production in New Zealand from going offshore where conditions would be worse.
The party says it is vital that when agricultural emissions pricing begins, farmers have the tools they need to respond.
Without such tools, a price on agricultural emissions would simply be a punitive tax.
"National will introduce an agricultural emissions price at the farm level no later than 2030," the party says.
But the prices put on emission would be kept in line with the level of this country's competitors and trade partners.
"Farmers should have access to the tools and technologies they need to reduce on-farm emissions before an emissions price is introduced," the party adds.
"Agricultural emissions pricing should operate with minimum compliance costs and give maximum certainty to support investment."
National would also establish an independent Agricultural Emissions Pricing Board to implement the system.
Income from this scheme would be recycled into research on climate mitigation.
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