Wednesday, 11 December 2024 12:05

Emissions reduction plan causes farmer furore

Written by  Staff Reporters
Groundswell co-founder Bryce McKenzie Groundswell co-founder Bryce McKenzie

Groundswell co-founder Bryce McKenzie says the government’s continued plans for emissions pricing are as bad for farmers as Labour’s plan.

McKenzie, an Otago farmer, says the Government’s emissions reduction plan will mean higher food prices for Kiwis, with no benefit to global emissions.

The updated plan, announced today, will see agricultural emissions pricing introduced by 2030 along with incentives to take up new technologies.

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts claims the plan sets the foundation for meeting the government's net zero 2050 target as early as 2044.

“New Zealand needs to be stronger in a changing climate. We want our way of life to be protected and minimise the impacts of climate change to our country,” Watts says.

“We can have affordable and secure clean energy, an efficient competitive agriculture sector, and a booming economy while meeting our climate change commitments. This plan sets out how we can get there.”

However, McKenzie says that while supporting research into emissions reduction innovation is good, Kiwi farmers are already the most efficient in the world and have strong incentives to hold that position by taking up new technologies once they are proven safe, effective and desired by consumers.

“This Government, like the last one, is pretending there is some way a price on agricultural emissions – a Farming Tax – can work without making the food we produce in New Zealand more expensive and less competitive overseas, sending production offshore,” he says.

"Any reduced production here will just be taken up by less efficient foreign farmers who emit more for the same amount of food and chop down rainforests to make room for their larger, less efficient herds and flocks.”

"If the goal is decreasing the world’s total food emissions, the politicians clapping for Simon Watts at overseas conferences should be removing trade barriers so our lower-emissions food can compete fairly in their markets," he concludes.

More like this

Non, Paris!

OPINION: Critics of NZ’s commitment to the Paris Accord, such as Groundswell and others, continue to push for an exemption for ag, arguing that the threat of trade retaliation is more hypothetical than real.

'Prepare for more pine trees'

Prepare for more pine trees. That's the message from North Otago farmer Jane Smith following the new methane emission targets recently announced by the Government.

Editorial: Climate dilemma

OPINION: The farming sector, or at least some parts of it, are preparing for a battle with the Government over its latest international climate change target.

Farmers want out of climate deal

Get out of the Paris Agreement on climate change – that’s the message from the farmer lobby group Groundswell to the Minister for Climate Change, Simon Watts.

Bouquet for bank

OPINION: Groundswell has given ANZ a shout-out for, so far, being the only one of the big four Aussie-owned banks not to set emissions reduction targets for its dairy sector loan book.

Featured

East Coast Expo delivers two action-packed days of events

The recent East Coast Farming Expo, held over two days at Wairoa, offered an insight into the current state of agriculture on the east of the North Island, at a time when the locals are remembering the second anniversary of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Sensors may aid early detection

A Research programme supported by Beef+Lamb NZ is investigating the potential of ‘accelerometer’ sensors for early detection of conditions such as facial eczema (FE) in sheep.

National

Machinery & Products

Alpego eyes electric power harrow

Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Dodgy!

OPINION: If you believe Maori Party president John Tamihere’s claim that “nothing dodgy” occurred at Manurewa Marae during the last…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter