While the All Blacks have been preparing to face Munster this week, back home the New Zealand government has agreed a research programme with Germany to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture. The project has a very long-winded title - 'the Alliance for the Climate - Dialogue on Climate and Agriculture between New Zealand and Germany (Agri-DENZ project)'.
While the All Blacks have been preparing to face Munster this week, back home the New Zealand government has agreed a research programme with Germany to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture.
The project has a very long-winded title - 'the Alliance for the Climate - Dialogue on Climate and Agriculture between New Zealand and Germany (Agri-DENZ project)'.
Its brief, according to New Zealand’s agriculture minister Todd McClay, is to “strengthen co-operation to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture without reducing production”.
His German counterpart Cem Özdemir spoke of a long tradition of friendship and co-operation between Germany and New Zealand and described the project as an opportunity to show how international partnerships can make agriculture fit for the future.
Despite the grand ambition of reducing emissions without reducing production, the initial work stream is very much focused on the pragmatic.
Work will focus on food loss and waste, soil carbon, standardising GHG accounting tools and developing farm-level strategies to mitigate emissions, while enhancing productivity.
Irish partnerships
This latest partnership announced by the New Zealand government is not dissimilar to one that it has with Ireland, which has been in place since 2022.
Since then, over €14m has been awarded by the governments of both countries to eight projects and, in May this year, Minister of State Martin Heydon TD and minister McClay announced a further call for projects with a budget of €3m.
Organic
As well as the GHG research partnership, the New Zealand government also announced this week an upgrade to the mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) with China.
The original MRA has been in place since 2022, whereby New Zealand and China recognise each other’s organic production and certification systems.
New Zealand’s minister for food safety Andrew Hoggard says that the upgraded MRA will “see New Zealand and China develop and undertake a joint work programme to strengthen trade and focus on boosting exports of New Zealand organic bulk food service ingredients and streamlining the certification process”.
New Zealand agriculture has much in common with Irish farming, with pasture farming dominant alongside smaller but significant grain production.
Both are export-dependent and New Zealand is one of the few countries where the share of GHG emissions coming from agriculture is actually higher than Ireland.
As is the case with Ireland, this reflects the fact that New Zealand hasn’t had heavy industry nor has it large-scale mining operations like neighbours Australia.
Like Ireland, they are chasing the holy grail of delivering a reduction in emissions from agriculture, but the one area where they differ from Ireland is that they don’t have to deliver a 25% reduction by 2030.
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