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New Zealand’s record on climate change, saying it has the highest share of emissions from agriculture among the 35 OECD member countries.

Its gross emissions per capita and per unit of gross domestic product sat among the five highest in the OECD.

The main tool for combating climate change, the Emissions Trading Scheme had “limited effectiveness” and “needs to be strengthened” by making agricul- ture accountable for its emissions, the report said.

Massey University’s Ralph Sims, the director of the Centre for Energy Research, said the assessment amounted to “another fail grade” by the OECD, “especially regarding our greenhouse gas emissions”.

“Surely . . . the Government must have received the message . . . we are not doing our fair share to prevent the global temperature rising above a level where we will all be worse off, and that the costs of climate impacts will soon become highly significant issues.”

Joyce said he was confident that scientific advances would provide a solution to greenhouse gas emissions produced by agriculture.

“It is very hard for New Zealand to turn its back on livestock farming given that is a significant part of what we do.

VMMOn freshwater, the report praised some of New Zealand’s innovations, including schemes to reduce nitrogen levels in Lake Taupo and a joint council-iwi effort to clean up the Waikato River.

It also links the increasing nitrate pollution in rivers and aquifers and rising levels of faecal matter to more intensive farming, and says there are some contradictions in the Government’s policy of subsiding irrigators while aiming to improve water quality.

Freshwater scientist Marc Schallenberg, from the University of Otago, said: “The Government should [note] that the report points out some contradictions between policies like . . . the [National Policy Statement] which aims to maintain or improve water quality and . . . central government’s $400m irrigation investment fund.

“As irrigation leads to agricultural intensification, the report states that irrigation projects should focus on increasing water use efficiency rather than promoting more intensification of agriculture and associated water pollution.”