DairyNZ chair wants cross-party deal
New DairyNZ chair Tracy Brown says bipartisan agreement among political parties on emissions pricing and freshwater regulations would greatly help farmers.
That's the belief of Waikato-based farm consultant Steve Cranston - a long-time critic of the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) proposal and plans to tax on-farm emissions. Cranston says - despite a recent government announcement that recognition of on-farm sequestration will be a core component of its work to reduce New Zealand's agricultural climate emissions - it will still exclude the vast majority of on-farm sequestration.
"This is due to a poorly understood and almost never mentioned additionality clause," he told Rural News. "I would estimate this clause to affect around 80% of the total sequestration currently happening on farms."
Cranston says the 'additionality clause' refers to active management over and above base-level sequestration.
"To put it into practice, if your farm has a stand of pre-1990 regenerating native forest sequestering 6.5 ton CO2 per/ha, HWEN will ask you to ensure it is fenced and employ pest control. They will then award an additional 0.5 ton CO2 per/ha for this 'active management'," he explains.
“However, what the HWEN partners have not explained to farmers is that 0.5 ton is all that farmers will receive, they will not get acknowledged for the full 7.0 tons per hectare that this stand of trees is now sequestering.”
Cranston claims that the Beef+Lamb NZ’s ‘know your numbers’ emissions calculator has only served to further entrench this deception.
“There is no mention of the additionality clause anywhere in that calculation,” he adds. “Farmers have been putting areas of trees into the calculator and thinking that they will receive credit for the full amount.”
Cranston reckons that there will be some “very upset farmers” when HWEN eventually gives them the actual numbers after factoring in the additionality clause.
“This clause is not based on science or IPCC guidelines; it is a political decision by this government to limit the amount of sequestration available to farmers to offset their emissions tax,” he adds.
Cranston says regenerating native forest meets the IPCC definition of ‘additionality’ because, at some point in time, farming practices changed that allowed this forest to regenerate.
“Farmers have every right to expect full credit for regenerating native forest, something they will currently only get pennies on the dollar for,” he claims.
Cranston believes that industry groups are being negligent in not telling farmers what exactly the additional clause actually means.
“Beef+Lamb and DairyNZ are obligated to front up and explain to farmers how much legitimate sequestration will still be excluded under the HWEN proposal.”
