New Zealand shows climate gains, but urgent action needed
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
 The Climate Change Commission will provide advice to Government on the He Waka Eke Noa proposals later this year.
		  	
		  
		  		  
		  The Climate Change Commission will provide advice to Government on the He Waka Eke Noa proposals later this year.
		  
		  
		  
	  The Climate Change Commission has detailed the advice it will provide to the Government regarding emissions trading in June this year.
In a Zoom session in late February, principal analyst Chris Holland and project lead Sally Garden told attendees that there were two parts to the advice.
The first is an assessment of farmer readiness for farm-level emissions pricing systems, named the Agriculture Progress Assessment – one of the two proposals being put to farmers by the He Waka Eke Noa climate action partnership.
Garden says the first part of this assessment is to look at how the primary sector is meeting its commitments under the Zero Carbon Act.
“We have to make an assessment of whether those are on track to be met,” she says.
The commitments include all farms having a documented annual total of greenhouse gas emissions by December 2022.
“Those milestones are sort of the building blocks for preparing farmers for emissions pricing,” she says. “We’ll be assessing whether we think that those have been met, but also whether there’s evidence that the commitments… are on track to be met.”
Another part is assessing progress towards farmers being ready to start complying with their reporting obligations.
“That’s really looking at making an assessment of the progress that the He Waka Eke Noa sector partnership has made in developing an alternative system for pricing agricultural emissions outside the emissions trading scheme.”
The other part of the advice the Commission will provide is the Agricultural Assistance Project, which Holland says will see it advise government as to what types of assistance will be required by farmers.
“Essentially… whether farmers should be receiving some kind of rebate on the emissions costs that they pay,” says Holland.
He says that, currently, assistance has only been defined as financial assistance to farmers.
“The key questions which ministers have asked us to answer are really around whether assistance will be required overall and then who might need assistance,” he says.
The Commission is due to provide its advice regarding the Agriculture Progress Assessment to the Government on June 30. The financial assistance advice is due by 30 April 2022.
The Government will make its decisions regarding farm emissions pricing by 30 December 2022.
Acclaimed fruit grower Dean Astill never imagined he would have achieved so much in the years since being named the first Young Horticulturist of the Year, 20 years ago.
The Ashburton-based Carrfields Group continues to show commitment to future growth and in the agricultural sector with its latest investment, the recently acquired 'Spring Farm' adjacent to State Highway 1, Winslow, just south of Ashburton.
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has blasted Fonterra farmers shareholders for approving the sale of iconic brands to a French company.
A major feature of the Ashburton A&P Show, to be held on October 31 and November 1, will be the annual trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial test match, with the best heading dogs from both sides of the Tasman going head-to-head in two teams of four.
Fewer bobby calves are heading to the works this season, as more dairy farmers recognise the value of rearing calves for beef.
The key to a dairy system that generates high profit with a low emissions intensity is using low footprint feed, says Fonterra program manager on-farm excellence, Louise Cook.

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