25 November 2015
Federated Farmers welcomes exclusion of agriculture in NZ ETS review
Federated Farmers has welcomed the Governments decision not to include agriculture in the scope of the Emissions Trading
Scheme (NZ ETS) review announced last night.
The review will assess how the NZ ETS should evolve to support New Zealand in meeting future emissions reduction targets
and its ongoing transition to a low emissions economy.
Federated Farmers Climate Change spokesperson Anders Crofoot says that issues around agriculture are bigger than the NZ
ETS and require more time than the review can allow.
“While the review doesn’t consider the question of bringing agriculture into the NZ ETS, we still have an interest in
the issue. Farmers pay for the emissions from fuel and electricity, like every other New Zealander. Many of our members
have forests on their farms, so we will be speaking with the government on these issues,” he says.
Mr Crofoot says farmers are contributing to the national effort to reduce emissions.
“Improvements to farm productivity see an average 1.3% increase in the emissions efficiency of farm production. This can
only improve with the considerable investment that farmers and the sector more broadly put into science and research to
reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions.”
“It makes more sense for New Zealand farm production to continue, rather than see less efficient farm production fill
the space on supermarket shelves our products currently enjoy,” he says.
Federated Farmers look forward to discussions with government on these and other issues.
ENDS