Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment
Our involvement with the ICCC through the AG CHARG process led Federated Farmers to be a leading organisation in the
Our Future in Our Hands Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment.
This proposed industry-government agreement seeks to undertake a ‘Programme of Action’ to work with the government and iwi/Maori to build an enduring farm level emission reduction framework over the next five years.
Federated Farmers was closely involved in the development of, and is a signatory to, the
Our Future in Our Hands Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment and firmly believes this is a vastly preferable approach than bringing agriculture into the unfit for purpose ETS based on the GWP100 metric which dramtically inflates the impact of stable biogenic methane emissions.
Federated Farmers does not and has not supported agricultural emissions going into the ETS - whether that be from 2025 or at any other time – without significant caveats. As detailed in Option 2, and as is consistent with our policy position, the pricing of agricultural emissions may only be considered if:
- This occurs at the margin for methane (where additional warming occurs) and not on the inaccurate GWP100 value.
- This occurs to incentivise the use of a cost-effective mitigation tool that is available, with regulatory approval, to farmers. None are currently available
- New Zealand farmers are not put at a disadvantage to our main international competitors. Any reduction will be replaced with production in countries that have higher emissions per unit of output, and often subsidised. This is known as “emissions leakage” and results in higher greenhouse gas emissions and higher food costs.
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