Displaying items by tag: climate change

OPINION: Two important pieces of work released in the last couple of weeks bring into clear focus the challenge New Zealand faces in its greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

If farmers want to offset their emissions under the likely Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), then it is rational to plant forestry and get the carbon credits for that, says Farm Foresters Association president Neil Cullen.

We've had lately an abundance of reports on how New Zealand should tackle its carbon emissions profile – especially regarding agriculture’s contribution.

Shane Jones’ one billion trees planting project is not ambitious enough, says the Productivity Commission.

Water vapour is responsible for at least 70% of the ‘greenhouse effect’, while methane and nitrous oxide — New Zealand’s supposedly ‘nasty’ emissions – are “virtually irrelevant” as contributors to any global warming effect.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton says there is no single way of dealing with agricultural emissions. 

Give us a “simple one-on-one” guide to the issue of climate change, says Federated Farmers vice-president and climate change spokesman Andrew Hoggard.

DairyNZ says emissions prices suggested by the Productivity Commission would heavily affect NZ farming if the sector faced a full emissions price under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The chairman of the Productivity Commission, Murray Sherwin, says farmers should not be scared by his organisation’s latest report on how New Zealand can achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) wants to see an evidence-based debate on how New Zealand should deal with greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.