Farmers told to adapt to new emission laws

No farmer has the right to pollute but nor should environmental issues override the economic imperatives, Agriculture Minister David Carter said today. Speaking at the Fed Farmers national conference in Auckland, Carter said the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as proposed by the previous Labour government would not survive, providing the National-led government could secure sufficient votes in Parliament reports Stuff."I cannot pre-empt the outcome of the Select Committee's recommendations, but I predict we will end up with an ETS, but a far more balanced one.  The PM [John Key] has always said that environmental concerns cannot come ahead of the economy," he said. Carter said emissions trading legislation would be in alignment with Australia and agriculture will be included in Australia's scheme. However, he said this was likely to come into effect only by 2015 at the earliest and farmers should not focus on if agriculture was included, but instead on the effect of "grand parenting". Grand parenting is the allocation of emissions trading units to any particular sector at the initiation of an ETS that allows a sector to adapt over time to the full effects of the ETS.  Under current proposals, agriculture would initially get 90% of its total emissions output and would be removed at the rate of 8% per year.  Carter said this would have a devastating impact on the economy.  Carter said Key was committed to not removing grand parenting at a rate that would ruin the economy. However, he suggested that farmers would eventually have to fall in line with environmental obligations. "In this area [of pollution] it is difficult to define what is a property right.  In my mind, no farmer has the right to pollute the environment." He said what the country needed to do was increase efficiency and that would have environmental impact, but he believed these effects can be mitigated or overcome through management or science.