Dear John --



I have just joined Christopher Luxon and Todd McClay to announce our plan to reduce agriculture emissions.



As anybody in Canterbury knows, farming is the backbone of New Zealand’s economy and I am proud that our farmers are the best in the world. Selwyn has one of the fastest-growing GDPs in the country, and that is thanks to the hard work done by our rural sector. However, we must find a sustainable pathway to bring agriculture emissions down.



Labour's plans to downsize agriculture to reduce emissions are neither feasible nor sustainable. Apart from making New Zealanders poorer, shutting down Kiwi farms would simply shift production to less carbon-efficient farms overseas, raising global emissions and making climate change worse.



It’s also extremely short-sighted for New Zealand to rely on converting our most productive agricultural land into forestry – and hollowing out our rural communities – in the name of reducing net emissions.



National believes that the approach must be about providing the tools and technologies first, then pricing – otherwise, we are just sending jobs, production, and emissions overseas.



Promising biotechnologies like methane inhibitors, animal vaccines, gene-edited grasses, and advanced animal feed all have the potential to reduce farm emissions while also delivering a step change in productivity.



Our plan to reduce agriculture emissions will:



1. Give farmers the tools they need to reduce emissions



- End the effective ban on GE and GM technologies.

- Farm-level emissions measurement by 2025.

- Continued sector-led investment in R&D to reduce on-farm greenhouse gases.

- Full recognition of on-farm sequestration on a robust, scientific basis.



2. Fair and sustainable pricing of on-farm emissions by 2030



- Split gas approach to keep agriculture out of the ETS.

- Prices set to reduce emissions without sending agricultural production overseas.

- Review methane targets for consistency with no additional warming from agriculture.



3. Limits on farm conversions to forestry on high-quality land from 2024.



Click here to read our fully policy announcement. <[link removed]>







Kind regards,







Nicola Grigg

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Selwyn Electorate - New Zealand

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