Angus Kebbell says it is one thing for the Climate Change Commission to require more emissions savings from farmers, but there is no agreed way to define them, and the sector is already has the world's lowest carbon footprint

The Climate Change Commission (CCC) says it proposes recommending the Government revisit the design of the incentives created by the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to ensure it supports the desired outcomes for the transition to net zero long-lived gas emissions.

The existing ETS architecture, combined with the relatively low cost of using forests to capture carbon, is likely to result in extensive afforestation in the near term, which in turn is likely to slow efforts to reduce emissions at their source. furthermore, and over the long term the ETS will not provide the durable incentives for planting forests needed to reach net zero long lived gas emissions across the economy by 2050.

The ETS is an important part of Government’s strategy to reduce emissions says the CCC. “Putting a price on emissions, which in turn raises the price of emissions-intensive activities and goods, encourages participants to make different choices and innovate to find low emissions alternatives. However, to be effective it needs to be calibrated to achieve the outcomes the Government is seeking. The ETS is a tool, not a strategy in and of itself.”

Beef+Lamb CEO Sam McIvor says that the Climate Change Commission rightly points out that the current policy settings are incentivising over-planting of trees on farmland, and that if this is not fixed, it will undermine New Zealand meeting its emissions reduction targets effectively and also have significant negative consequences for rural communities.

“B+LNZ has said for a long time that there is a place for forestry in meeting New Zealand’s climate change commitments. The integration of trees within farms could be a win-win and go some way towards meeting New Zealand’s climate change objectives, whilst maintaining a vibrant and profitable red meat sector.”

Sam McIvor says the wholesale conversion of productive sheep and beef farms into carbon farms is a significant problem with fossil fuel emitters simply offsetting and not doing enough to use the currently available tools to reduce their emissions in the first place.

“The Climate Change Commission has outlined a range of options for addressing issues relating to offsetting, including introducing gross targets for CO2 as New Zealand currently have for methane, and for meeting New Zealand’s emissions reductions goals. We will be studying these closely.

“Ultimately, the emissions trading scheme needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency. In its latest report, the Climate Change Commission has also identified agriculture as most likely to achieve or even exceed its sub-sector targets in the 2030s, whilst most other sectors, including transport, risk failing to even achieve a fraction of what they need to do,” says McIvor.

“It is good that the Climate Change Commission has also reiterated its support for a farm level system for managing agricultural emissions, however, there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done to set up a credible measurement and reporting system, which would be the first in the world. We strongly recommend focusing on getting this set up and working properly, but not introducing a price until sequestration and mitigation issues have been worked through. This is too important to rush.”

“The Climate Change Commission will also potentially be recommending a review of the methane targets later this year. This is something we will be engaging in closely to ensure that the methane targets are based on the latest science, which shows that New Zealand’s current methane targets disproportionately ask more of methane than CO2 from a climate perspective.”

The CCC says that, the reductions of agriculture emissions will be an important factor in meeting the second emissions budget and the 2030 biogenic methane target. “A broad suite of actions and policies is required to ensure an equitable transition to a low emissions sector. We propose recommending that the Government advance the agricultural emissions pricing system to enable recognition of multiple gross emissions-reducing practices and technologies and drive gross emissions reductions in line with the 2050 target.”

“Farmers will need support to change practices, so we also propose recommending that the Government enhance advisory and extension services to farmers to accelerate the adoption of emissions-efficient practices, appropriate land-use diversification, and emerging technologies to reduce gross emissions. These services should be co-designed and implemented working with industry.”

It's all very well for the CCC to come out and say that the Government should progress with the emissions pricing system for farmers, but we still do not have the mathematical equation that provides a net on farm emission profile. There is significant native vegetation on New Zealand farms absorbing and retaining significant amounts of carbon in real terms that needs to be calculated; if this is not counted then the emission pricing system is completely flawed and inaccurate.

New Zealand farmers are one of the few parts of the economy that have been reducing emissions. The red meat sector has cut its gross emissions by -30% since 1990 alone and has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world.

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Angus Kebbell is the Producer at Tailwind Media. You can contact him here.