Dear John,
You might have seen Labour and the Greens today announce how they
plan to reduce farmers’ carbon emissions.
I’m very concerned by the massive impacts these proposals could
have on our rural towns and communities - which could see sheep and
beef farming reduce by one fifth in just five years.
National backs our farmers. Our rural communities
are the backbone of our country and agriculture is our biggest export
earner. New Zealand’s prosperity is built on the hard work of farmers
and growers up and down the country. It’s their work and their
businesses that support other rural businesses and suppliers and
create employment and jobs in provincial towns. We cannot let Labour
and the Greens put that at risk.
I want you to know where National stands.
New Zealand needs to cut its carbon emissions. National supports
New Zealand’s emissions targets, including reaching carbon net zero by
2050. And that means reducing agriculture emissions over time.
We backed the sector-led process as a way to introduce emission
pricing for agriculture alongside other measures to reduce on-farm
emissions and support the uptake of new technology.
We believe consensus with farmers is vital. But the Government has
today put that at risk with a different proposal which could gut our
rural communities while seeing emissions increase overseas as food
production and jobs move off-shore.
Indeed, the Government’s own figures suggest its proposed scaling
back of our sheep industry will actually lead to overall higher global
emissions. That’s because Kiwi farmers are among the most carbon
efficient in the world so cutting back food production here just to
see demand being met by less-efficient farmers overseas is simply
counterproductive. National would ensure Kiwi farmers enjoy regulatory
settings that make it easy to develop and adopt new technology to
reduce emissions – not just send primary production, jobs and
emissions offshore.
National would also allow farmers to earn credit for all forms of
on-farm carbon capture. It's just not right for Labour and the Greens
to add extra costs to farmers without allowing on-farm planting and
carbon capture to offset new emissions costs they may face.
The Government needs to get alongside rural communities and
find an enduring solution that works for everyone – not dictate
changes from Wellington.
National trusts farmers to be the best environmental stewards of
their own land. I know farmers will use technology, ingenuity and
local knowledge to figure out local solutions that work to reduce
emissions sensibly.
Regards,
Christopher Luxon National Party Leader
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