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.
HWEN director Kelly Forster claims that the ag sector partnership is considering all suggestions put in front of it by farmers, but is constrained by the Government's requirements and timeframe.
The Government has already legislated that there will be a price on emissions from the agricultural sector from 2025.
"We have to recommend a credible emissions pricing system by the end of May, or the Government will include agriculture in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)," Forster explains.
She says that there were some clear themes coming through from the farmer consultation.
"There is a large amount of concern about the potential impact of any levy on the financial viability of farming. No decision has been made on how much the levy will be, but we hear that farmers want a voice in price setting and revenue recycling decisions."
Farmers were asked to consider two options during the consultation - a farm-level levy or a processor-level hybrid levey - as alternatives to the 'backstop' of agriculture being put in the ETS.
"Farmers told us they want a system thagt recognises the steps they are already taking and provides them with practical tools to reduce emissions, rather than simply imposing a price," Forster says.
She claims there was a clear preference from farmers for a farm-level option because it gives farmers control over managing their emissions profile and provides incentives for any mitigation action they take on-farm.
However, she concedes there are real concerns about aspects of farm levy option, including equity and availability of mitigation options, administrative costs and farmer readiness to implement they system by 2025.
Forster says there was general support for HWEN's desire for recognising carbon sequestration on-farm, particularly the range of on-farm vegetation recognised. Many farmers also asked for older forests (pre-2008) to be better recognised as well as soil carbon to be included.
She says there was also general support for the 'split-gas' approach, which recognises the different impact on global warming of methane and carbon dioxide.
Forster says the HWEN partners are now focused on reflecting the sector's feedback in the design of a proposed system that is due to be recommended to the Government by the end of May. She says more than 7,000 people have expressed their views in some way and all feedback will be considered.
"A full report on the feedback received will be made public alongside the recommended system."
The Government will consider the HWEN recommendations and is expected to make a final decision in December on the pricing system for agricultural emissions.
