The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and its impact on
Agriculture
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While Federated Farmers and other organisations are
lobbying to try to avoid Agriculture's participation in the Emissions Trading
Scheme ("ETS"), the die was cast when NZ ratified the Kyoto
Protocol and in so doing took on the obligations agreed to by the
signatories. In NZ's case, it was
allocated just under 310 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
emissions credits for the five year period from 1 January 2008 and 31
December 2012.
The question then for the Government was the mechanism by which the Kyoto
obligations could be delivered upon. Clearly there needed to be disincentives
for GHG emitters to be increasing their emissions when the Protocol was aimed
at reductions. A complicating factor
in all this is the evolution of the science for calculating emissions.
Another issue for NZ is if the Global Warming Potential ("GWP") of
methane increases from its current 21 times to a figure closer to 30 times
that of CO2. (Methane is the component of animal emissions.)
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In NZ we
have three main sources of emission - nearly 50% from the digestive systems
of farmed animals, the burning of fossil fuels (eg petrol, diesel & gas)
and from forest harvesting (deemed to be a 100% emission when a tree is cut
down).
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To vary the assumptions, the figures below are
definable & impact on the above text.
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Input (see
above) a.
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mt b.
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c.
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d. $
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/t
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This whole discussion about the preparedness of NZ farmers
to accept the authorised version about the carbon footprint and other
sustainability issues and premium market customer's perceptions thereof needs
to be considered in the light of comments by Professor David Hughes from
Imperial College, London. He is an acclaimed expert in the food retail
sector, consulting around the world.
He told attendees at the NZX Agribusiness Conference in May that for
NZ to have continued access to the premium
markets (meat in particular), a low or zero carbon foot-print is
essential, traceability is a must and water sustainability certification is
fast gaining traction as a requirement.
In other words, if our farming leaders want to argue "its all too
hard", that will come at a significant cost, far greater that the costs
of GHG emissions mitigation. It can be said "non-tariff barriers"
but remember, the customer is always right!
The following page is a model that can be used to calculate the GHG
emissions from individual farming operations with the next page showing
mitigation options.
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© Copyright 2009, 2010. The
Tree Carbon Company and Carboncalcs.com.
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