Last chance to have your say on emissions pricing

Submissions on the government's proposal to price agricultural emissions close in around 48 hours. 
  
Feds knows you are busy so we are making it as easy as possible to get a submission in.
  
Our submission builder is at the following link. The submission builder is designed to make the process quick and easy. 
 

Submission Builder 

 

Via email 

You can also submit by sending an email with your submission in the body of the email (or as an attachment) to [email protected]. You should receive an automatic reply- if you don’t receive this double check, you have the correct email address. 
  
Include in the submission:
•  Your name or organisation name
•  Your postal address 
•  Your telephone number 
•  Your email address. 
  
For or against
We suggest that you state if you support or oppose the government’s “October 2022 pricing agricultural emissions” proposal. Federated Farmers will be submitting in opposition to the proposal. 
  
Who you are
In our view, the best way to start a submission is by providing a few sentences explaining your personal background and circumstances. Who are you and why you care. This is your opportunity to add a personal touch to your submission. 
  
If you are a farmer, talk about where you farm, a bit about the history of your farm, how many families the farm supports, and the environmental efforts you have made. If you are a rural business owner or employee, talk about the history of the business and the families the business supports.
If you know how much the proposed emissions taxes will cost your farm, you may want to state this here along with the assumptions you have used.
  
How this will impact your community 
For the third part of your submission, we recommend that you discuss how an emissions tax will impact your community. This is important context before you begin discussing what proposals you do or don’t support. 
For example, if you lived in or near Wairoa, you could discuss the reliance the town has on the meat industry and the local meat processing plant and how a dramatic fall in meat production and a close of the meat processing plant would impact jobs in your town. 
  
What areas of the policy you disagree with 
Here is an example of what you could write when disagreeing with the proposal. 
‘I cannot support a policy that will condemn rural communities to a state of permanent decline. The government’s economic modelling shows that sheep and beef production will reduce by over 20% and dairy production by around 5%. New Zealand currently already has tourism and international education sectors suffering the impacts of COVID, while our oil, gas and coal sectors are seeing less investment also. Rural communities cannot handle major reductions in agricultural production.’ 
  
What the government must do
And here is an example of what you could write saying about what the government should do next. 
‘The policy must be anchored on a scientific and warming equitable target for methane emissions. The best way to do this is to stick with the goal of New Zealand reaching climate neutrality by 2050. For carbon dioxide this will mean the current net-zero by 2050 target. For methane this requires a 10% reduction by 2050.’ 
  
Federated Farmers only supports the pricing of agricultural emissions once the following bottom lines have been met: 

• A scientific target for methane based on no additional warming is established (that is being zero carbon or warming neutral equivalent) by 2050. The best available science places this level of reduction at 10% by 2050 based on an average reduction of 0.3% per year from 2017 to 2050.
  
  Federated Farmers has consistently opposed the current 10% by 2030 and 24-47% by 2050 biogenic methane reduction targets since they were first legislated for in the 2019 Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill.
  
  
• Money raised is used exclusively to incentivise the uptake of viable and cost-effective mitigation options that are available to New Zealand farmers.
  
  
• No emissions leakage or reductions in food production occur.

  
For more on the submission process and how to make one, listen to this podcast on FEDSVoice with Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury President David Acland and Group Manager National Policy Nick Clark. 
  
The full guide to writing a submission on government agriculture pricing proposals can be accessed below. 
 

Submissions Guide 

 
 


Gavin Forrest
GM Policy & Advocacy 
[email protected]