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Dear John --
Today
National announced our plan to reduce
agricultural emissions and meet our climate change
targets while supporting our agricultural sector to succeed.
Agriculture is the backbone of New Zealand’s
economy, contributing 11 per cent of GDP, 13 per cent of
employment and 81 per cent of goods exports. Our farmers are among the
most competitive and carbon- efficient food producers in the world,
feeding an estimated 40 million people worldwide.
Labour has failed to achieve anything in six
years. Labour rejected He Waka Eke Noa, the industry’s
proposal to reduce emissions, and instead proposed shutting down 20
per cent of sheep and beef farms, hitting farmers with a
punitive fertiliser tax and sending production overseas to high
emitting countries.
National believes the solution to agricultural emissions is through
technology, not by sacrificing our largest export sector or blanketing
agricultural land in pine trees.
National’s plan to reduce agricultural
emissions:
- Give farmers the tools they need to reduce emissions, such as gene
edited crops, feed, and livestock, by lifting the effective ban on
gene editing and genetic modification technologies.
- Implement a fair and sustainable pricing system for on-farm
agricultural emissions by 2030 that reduces emissions without sending
production overseas. An independent board will be established to
implement the pricing system.
- Recognise on-farm sequestration, review methane targets and
implement a split gas approach to keep agriculture out of the
ETS.
- Limit the conversion of productive farmland to forestry for carbon
farming purposes to protect local communities and food
production.
New Zealand’s farmers are already among the world’s most efficient.
Imagine if they could become even more productive. That would help
grow New Zealand’s economy, so the country could afford more of the
services we all want.
National gets it, and National backs farmers.
Read our full plan here.
Todd McClay
National Party Spokesperson for Agriculture
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