Doubts raised about greenhouse gas agreement
AN agreement between the Government and the farming sector to cut greenhouse gas emissions could yet again result in little shortterm change, Dr Ivan DiazRainey warns.
The Government and the farming sector have agreed to a partnership to reduce primary sector emissions, through a fiveyear plan to measure and price farm emissions by 2025.
The Government can bring the sector into the Emissions Trading Scheme if insufficient progress has been made by 2025.
Dr DiazRainey, of the University of Otago’s Climate and Energy Finance Group, said the agreement had been billed as ‘‘historical’’ but there had been a lengthy history of neither governments nor the country’s farming sector taking action to cut agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement could yet prove historical if the agriculture sector ‘‘grabs the opportunity to get its house in order before the 2025 deadline’’, when the sector would drop into the ETS, he said.
However, the agricultural sector would be the ‘‘potential biggest loser’’ if it did not make changes, because social change was already happening in New Zealand, and there could be a negative reaction from European markets if this country appeared to be doing little about climate change, he said.
‘‘I just know that change is hard to do.
‘‘It’s good that they’re [farming sector representatives] at the table,’’ he added.
Carrot was being followed by stick in what could be a ‘‘clever approach’’ but it seemed improbable that agriculture would come up with a scheme of its own with real teeth.
‘‘I fear that if the carrot is not embraced by agriculture, the reality will be that today’s announcement will be another footnote in the long history of kicking real action on agricultural emissions into the future,’’ he said.