The new body being set up by the Government to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector will make real change, according to the Minister for Climate Change.
James Shaw spoke to Breakfast following the publication of the Government’s $2.9 billion plan to reduce emissions, targeting key areas including transport and agriculture.
This money is part of the $4.5 billion set aside from the Climate Emergency Response Fund.
Nearly $340,000 of the money in the Emissions Reduction Plan is earmarked for setting up a Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions.
Shaw is adamant that this can’t just be another body set up to do research.
He says roughly $200 million has been spent over the past decade on this and now is the time for action.
“The cut and thrust here is to say actually, what we need to do is to commercialise all of those practice changes, those technologies and so on … and to actually get those adopted on farm,” Shaw told Breakfast.
“Otherwise, we’re just setting up another entity that would replicate what we’ve already got.
“The intention here, with this new organisation, is that it is all about working with farmers to actually adopt and roll out those changes on farm that will see emissions come down.”
Federated Farmers, the farming advocacy body, says it's pleased the Government has recognised technology and tools are key to solving the emissions problem and are now backing that up with money.
But not everyone's pleased.
Shaw’s comments come amid criticisms from organisations such as Oxfarm Aotearoa, that money has already been thrown at research and development but there had yet to be a significant reduction in emission levels.
"We already know what is needed to reduce agricultural emissions," Oxfam Aotearoa campaigns lead Alex Johnston told Breakfast.
“We know we need to shift to a different, less intensive production of food.
“Those solutions are there, there’s just not the political will to implement them.”
Johnston believes decisions expected from the Government later this year around how to price agricultural emissions could be a "meaningful tool".
Shaw, meanwhile, has acknowledged there are many different ways in which you can bring down emissions but says that no change isn’t an option.
“I don’t want to get into a prescription myself about what the precise methods are but there is an emissions budget that agriculture is going to have to live within and that does increase over time.
“It’s really clear that whatever method is used around the country, emissions in agriculture must come down, just as they do in every other sector of the economy.”
Nearly half of New Zealand’s emissions come from the agricultural sector, according to the Ministry for the Environment.
Climate change preparedness
Meanwhile, Shaw says the Government is getting ready to release its national climate adaptation plan, which will address issues such as sea level rise.
This is expected to be published in August.
Shaw says the Government didn’t want to allocate money to this area until it could better understand how it could be used most effectively.
However, he says future money that is set aside to help tackle climate change will likely address this.
When asked if he’s happy with the Government’s plan and the money that has been earmarked for climate, Shaw told Breakfast he’s never satisfied and won’t be until New Zealand reaches net zero emissions.
This is the point where the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity are balanced by the amount being taken out of the atmosphere.
Shaw says that while he “never promised it was going to be perfect”, this is the first time New Zealand has ever had a climate plan with legislated targets.
“I do think we’re at the start of a process here and we need to be constantly pushing ourselves and looking for ways to extend beyond the targets that we’ve set for ourselves and the plans we’ve set for ourselves.”
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