Primary sector climate change commitment

Undated, but perhaps mid to late 19th century.

Beef and Lamb New Zealand today issued an Update to Farmers about Climate Change and Water, including their Announcement on Agricultural Emissions.

Today we have reached agreement with the government on establishing a farm level approach to reducing agricultural emissions.

This is an historic moment, and one that overall we are pleased about.

The government had been considering introducing a price on emissions at the processor level through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2021, which would in effect have been a blunt tax on farmers and would not have incentivised or rewarded farmers who are already doing the right thing.

The government has instead agreed to the alternative partnership approach published by 11 agricultural organisations1 in July 2019, called He Waka Eke Noa. While the approach agreed with the government will involve establishing a price on agricultural emissions by 2025, crucially this will not happen through the ETS and will happen at the farm gate.

The agreement today provides us with a pathway to work with the government to develop the most appropriate pricing mechanism possible for agriculture by 2025.  It will involve the establishment of a farm level emissions budget, lead to farmers paying for emissions fairly based on their own circumstances, and enable them to count their offsets such as from trees on their farms.

New Zealand is the first country to price agricultural emissions, and through this agreement, our sector has a shot at designing this system to ensure that it is fair for farmers.  By working with the government, we will also be able to establish an approach that reflects methane being a short-lived gas, and which recognises sequestration.

Commentary

The ‘alternative partnership approach’ described by a statement in He Waka Eke Noa, though long and obscure, appears to consist of nothing more than allowing Maoris to join the long-established arrangement between the primary sector and the government. The document, produced by 11 agricultural organisations, in a strange statement on page 6, claims this is new:

Achieving enduring progress towards the goals of mitigating agricultural emissions and building resilience of our primary sectors requires a genuine partnership between the primary sector, iwi/Māori and the government. This approach represents a departure from the past practice in this sector and requires us to forge new ground but we are strongly committed to making this work.

But Maoris have been farming here  for a long time before and after colonisation. The statement, apart from failing to explain why it’s necessary to consult Maoris on farming practice, claims a silk purse of perfection from a pig’s ear of imaginary improvement. Allowing Maoris a voice is little change on a century or two of practice. The rest of the climate change commitment consists of twelve pages of wall-to-wall waffle that’s impossible to penetrate and includes unmistakable breast-beating of do-gooders who blame their ancestors for the crime of introducing an advanced western civilisation and its knowledge and prosperity to a stone-age culture lacking writing, wheels, metallurgy and any concept of nation. A culture that fought, killed and enslaved each other, even valued the eating of enemies. By any standard, we civilised them and the best of the Maoris were grateful.

In fact, they pleaded to become subjects of the far-away Queen Victoria, yet now the do-gooders claim they were promised an unspecified ‘partnership’ and continue to offer them more and more privileges far above what the rest of us command.

It must end. Make them equal.

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  1. Apiculture NZ, FOMA, Beef & Lamb NZ, FAR, Dairy NZ, Federated Farmers of NZ, Horticulture NZ, Dairy Companies Association of NZ, Irrigation NZ, Deer Industry NZ and Meat Industry Association.

3 Thoughts on “Primary sector climate change commitment

  1. Gwan on 25/10/2019 at 6:25 pm said:

    The whole idea of controlling farm bases emissions is based on is based on ideology that is so faulty that so unscientific that it should never have seen the light of day .
    Biogenic methane emissions from farmed livestock do not add one atom of carbon into the atmosphere.
    Every molecule of methane that is emitted by animals has come from vegetation that has absorbed CO2 from the air .
    The methane is broken down into CO2 and water vapour in the upper atmosphere in between 5 and 8 years and the cycle continues .
    NOT ONE EXTRA ATOM of CARBON is ADDED to the ATMOSPHERE.
    From 1999 till 2008 the methane levels in the atmosphere flat lined at around 1800 parts per billion and to compare that with CO2 at 410 parts per million methane is 1.8 parts per million .
    The methane levels started to rise again when world coal production rapidly rose from 4.6 billion tonnes per year to over 8 billion tones last year .
    There is no problem with biogenic methane emissions and food production should never be restricted
    in a futile attempt to curb a cycle that adds nothing .
    I told the select Committee on the Zero Carbon Bill this in the 5 minutes that they gave me .
    I can accept that the burning of fossil fuel will release CO2 and CH4 into the atmosphere that has been locked up below the ground for millions of years .
    But what I will not accept is that biogenic methane emissions are in any way the same .
    They were introduced by activists at the Kyoto Accord without any scientific scrutiny and the politicians accepted that they were emissions that should be controlled.
    How did biogenic methane emissions get lumped into the same category as the extraction of fossil fuels ?
    Every human being on this planet breathes out CO2 and that CO2 is exactly the same as biogenic methane,
    It does not add one atom of carbon to the atmosphere.
    Graham Anderson
    Proud to be a farmer helping feed a hungry world.

  2. Brett Keane on 26/10/2019 at 10:16 am said:

    https://realclimatescience.com/2019/10/michael-moore-exposes-the-green-energy-scam

    Beautiful! Michael Moore has seen the light!!!
    He has backed a new film on the green scam and its false flag moneygrubbing lies. Mass suicide of all trolls should follow…… Brett Keane

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