The Government has adopted He Waka Eke Noa – the Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment, which Beef + Lamb New Zealand chairman Andrew Morrison said is a good outcome for farmers.
“I hope farmers understand the importance of today,” he said.
“This is a piece of work that empowers us as a sector to put the tools in place to measure the mitigations, the sequestrations against our liabilities.
“That’s our goal and that will drive the right behaviours.”
But now the office work is done the farm work will start.
“The challenge of this is now we have to do a whole lot of work.
“It’s okay not paying a processor levy but now we’ve committed to getting these tools and these farm plans in place.”
Ardern said applying a levy at the processor level would not have had the desired effect of lowering emissions.
“If the levy sat at processor level it didn’t necessarily change anything about the behaviour at farm level. That’s what we ultimately need.
“We need emission reduction, not just to pay a price for emissions but we need them to come down.”
Ardern said reinstating the levy, if progress isn’t made by 2022, will be written into law.
“That’s exactly what the mechanism is for. From the relationships that we’ve built and the conversations we’ve had … I don’t believe that’s going to be necessary. But it exists to hold us all to account.”
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said the Government’s initial plan was unworkable but the right decision was made.
“I think it’s a win-win for us in the sense that what was proposed initially was never going to work for anyone.
“It’s about what result we’re trying to achieve and that’s to ultimately manage our emissions down to a level that’s appropriate and stabilise them. In that sense it is a world first.
“So we’re really grateful that the Government has listened to farmers and now we can put in place the best steps to get to 2025.”
Mackle says farmer reaction will be mixed.
“There will be a range of views. There will be those who are closer to it, those who are in the middle and those who are not.
“We’ve got to talk that through but things are moving fast and we needed to find a practical outcome pretty quickly and that’s what we’ve done.”
Morrison said the best farmers will now be recognised.
“Some farmers won’t understand the importance of today. But the point is it is around the behaviours because we’ve got some guys that have done a lot of stuff on their farms and they need recognition for the decisions they’ve made on-farm and this is what’s driving the whole process.”
And more good work will happen now farmers have certainty, Mackle said.
“A couple of nights ago at our annual meeting a farmer got up and said ‘we can do this, if farmers know what they need to do they can get on and do this’ and that’s a really big part of it – working through this with farmers.”
The Government has also left the door open for the industry to work with it on freshwater reform.
“Obviously, we’re in the middle of consultation and the goal is to make sure that we can achieve our shared ambition of stopping degradation and restoring our waterways and I believe that’s a shared ambition and that’s why we’re out consulting at the moment,” Ardern said.
In the meantime, the climate change plan is the best outcome for everyone.
“This is about certainty but it is also about opportunity.
“We know we need to take the time to get this right but we also need to make progress.
“So the five-year work programme set out today is true to the unique nature of the sector that created it.
“It’s practical, it’s innovative, it’s achievable,” Ardern said.
