The deer industry is disappointed by the Government’s agricultural emissions reduction targets that will result in significant reductions in stock numbers.
Even if tools and technologies were available to reduce methane and nitrous oxide in future the level of reduction will effectively mean the agriculture sector is being asked not just to cease its own contribution to global warming but also offset the contribution of other sectors.
“We do not deny human-induced climate change nor our responsibility to mitigate.
“The pastoral sector is willing to target net zero global warming impact from agricultural gases but these targets for methane go beyond net zero global warming impact.
“DINZ cannot support these targets,” Walker said.
The rationale for methane to be reduced by 24% to 47% by 2050 has not been made clear.
“We can only assume the Government expects agriculture to make headroom for other sectors to continue emitting.
“This is unfair for the sector but also a bad choice for NZ because, in the absence of new mitigation technology, a 47% reduction in agricultural methane emissions will require a 47% reduction in pastoral farming outputs.”
That could reduce rural employment and export revenues from meat, milk and fibre by half or about $12 billion a year.
“The Government has expressed no plan for how this employment and export revenue could be replaced and New Zealanders living standards maintained.”
Reducing agricultural methane emissions is a temporary solution buying time and does not address the fundamental cause of climate change, which is the release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere.
“The deer industry alongside other pastoral industries supports the pastoral sector reducing nitrous oxide to net zero and gradually reducing and stabilising emissions of methane so that its levels in the atmosphere do not increase – that is no additional warming effect from livestock agriculture.”
Walker accepts atmospheric science suggests annual reductions of 0.3% in agricultural methane will result in a 10% reduction by 2050 and ensure the gas causes no more atmospheric warming.
“The pastoral sector including DINZ will continue to support research on agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation options and development of a robust framework to enable farms to transition to lower emissions.
“But DINZ considers there is little sense in sacrificing NZ’s economic backbone when all this does is delay the need for NZ and all other countries to address the fundamental issues of fossil fuel emissions.
