Not as simple as planting trees to reduce emissions — Guy

It requires a broader discussion than that, he says.

“For example, planting the right trees, in the right place, at the right time can buy us time to find options to reduce biological emissions from agriculture.”

The Government is supporting these efforts through the Afforestation Grant Scheme, the Erosion Control Funding Programme and the Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change research programme.

“The Government is also investing $20 million a year in research into developing new mitigation options like a vaccine to reduce emissions from agriculture, which is a very promising long term option.”

Guy says agricultural emissions make up 49% of New Zealand’s gross emissions.

“Reducing them while growing our economy is a difficult challenge, but it’s one we must solve.

“For that reason we recently established the biological emissions reference group to work with the sector to state an objective and agreed understanding of what can be done to reduce agricultural emissions.”