National leader Christopher Luxon says the country needs to better back farmers, not reduce herd sizes. Photo / Brett Phibbs
National leader Christopher Luxon says the country needs to better back farmers, not reduce herd sizes. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The latest greenhouse gas report shows a slight dip in emissions amid the 2020 lockdown, but the Climate Change Minister says a pandemic is not a solution and agricultural and transport emissions need to come down.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon meanwhile has hit back at suggestions the agricultural sectorneeds to reduce herd sizes and called for the Government to better engage with industry.
The latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory, released from the Ministry for the Environment, showed gross greenhouse gas emissions were down by 3 per cent between 2019 and 2020.
This reduction was mainly due to fewer travel emissions, and reduced fuel use for manufacturing resulting from Covid-19 lockdowns.
Climate Change Minister James Shaw. Photo / Mark Mitchell
From 1990 to 2020 however gross emissions increased by 21 per cent.
Shaw said the report showed much work remained to get on track to net-zero, particularly in agriculture and transport.
About 50 per cent of emissions came from agriculture, including 23.5 per cent from dairy cattle.
Between 1990 and 2020, emissions from the sector increased by 17 per cent mainly due to an 80 per cent increase in the dairy herd and increase in use of synthetic nitrogen by about 693 per cent.
The energy sector was the next largest at about 40 per cent of emissions, which had increased 32 per cent since 1990.
This increase was largely due to a 76 per cent increase in emissions in the transport sector, which now made up 16.7 per cent of emissions overall.
The inventory measures New Zealand's progress against international obligations, and showed it was on track to meet 2020 targets.
Luxon said he was opposed to reducing stock sizes given New Zealand's agriculture was already the "most carbon-efficient" in the world.
"Agriculture generates 80 per cent of our foreign export earnings, it's $9000 for every New Zealander in the country, it employs over 380,000 people and it feeds 40 million people internationally.
'We're already the most carbon efficient producers in the world, and all we'd be doing is meeting the demand for that 40 million people that we feed, and it will go to another less carbon-efficient country."
National leader Christopher Luxon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The country needed to better back farmers, he said, and the Government needed a plan for each sector.
"We have all got more to do. My view is to take each category and develop a concrete plan to work with each sector.
The challenge in transport was range anxiety and charging infrastructure, yet the Government was doing "nothing on that", he said.
Public transport needed to be compelling to those who wanted it, otherwise it became a "white elephant", he said.
Shaw said the emissions reduction plan, to be released next month, would provide a comprehensive list of actions to drive the changes needed.
It would set out how we will meet our first emissions budget and include policies and strategies to reduce emissions in key sectors like transport, energy, waste, building and construction, agriculture and forestry, he said.
"Covid-19 has caused global anomalies in emissions levels, but clearly a pandemic is not the way to tackle climate change.
"The important thing is that we cannot just go back to normal and watch as our emissions bounce back and start climbing once again. We have to build back better.
"We have to get on with the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy."
Shaw said the biggest opportunities to reduce emissions were in methane emissions from agriculture, and carbon emissions from transport.
"The clean car discount is already driving a welcome shift to low- or zero-emission vehicles – and there is plenty more to come in the transport space.
"Later this year, Government will make a decision on how we measure, manage and price agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
"Whatever system we land on will have to create the right incentives for farmers to reduce emissions and move to more efficient, sustainable practices."
