(closes 11.59pm Sunday 28th July)
Aotearoa New Zealand’s agricultural sector accounts for 49% of total greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of annual biogenic methane production.
Provisions in the Climate Change Response Act (CCRA) to progressively bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) were intended as a backstop to incentivise the development of an alternative system; hence the He Waka Eke Noa initiative of the previous Government (now abandoned).
This Bill would remove all provisions in the CCRA to bring agricultural emissions into the ETS. In its place, the coalition Government intends introducing a ‘fair and sustainable pricing system for on-farm emissions by 2030’.
The departmental disclosure statement states that ‘as an alternative pricing system has yet to be developed outside the ETS, there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of the Ministers’ preferred option … the full range of options in the [Regulatory Impact Statement] has not had the benefit of broad public consultation and there will be limited opportunity for consultation during the Select Committee process’.
If this Bill passes, there will be higher risk of not achieving the 10% reduction in biogenic methane by 2030 legislated for in the CCRA, six years away. Together with the mooted no additional warming from agricultural emissions model, that means all other parts of our economy will carry the burden of emissions reductions in Aotearoa.
For more information see here, here and here.
You can make a submission here.
Find here the Submission made by the NTCF Submission group: 2024-07-28 NTCF Submission on CCRA Emissions Trading Scheme Agricultural Obligations Bill