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New Zealand’s promised zero carbon bill is just out – the first piece of legislation anywhere proposing to set staged reductions in methane emissions, compared with the full elimination of more permanent greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2).
Carbon dioxide is the most important thing we need to tackle
Ireland and New Zealand are the only developed countries where agriculture – primarily ruminant livestock – is the main source of emissions.
“Carbon dioxide is the most important thing we need to tackle – that’s why we’ve taken a net zero carbon approach,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement. This means any remaining emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels must be compensated by equivalent removals through activities such as forestry by 2050.
By contrast, the target for methane from livestock is to reduce emissions by 10% below 2017 levels by 2030.
The government argues that while CO2 persists in the atmosphere for thousands of years, methane degrades over decades
A further targeted reduction between 24% and 47% is to be confirmed later for 2050. The New Zealand government refers to research published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to set these figures.
The government argues that while CO2 persists in the atmosphere for thousands of years, methane degrades over decades. More specifically, “biogenic methane” comes from CO2 that was originally in the atmosphere, was captured and processed by plants and animals into methane, and finally returns to CO2 again. They contrast this with greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, which release carbon previously stored underground for milions of years.
Agriculture is incredibly important to New Zealand, but it also needs to be part of the solution
Nitrous oxide, which is principally released through nitrogen fertiliser application, is regarded as a long-lived gas and must be reduced to net zero emissions by 2050, just like CO2.
“Agriculture is incredibly important to New Zealand, but it also needs to be part of the solution. That is why we have listened to the science and also heard the industry and created a specific target for biogenic methane,” Prime Minister Ardern said. New Zealand’s farming organisations have broadly welcomed the separate treatment of methane, but criticised the proposed 24% to 47% cut in emissions.
They referred to calculations commissioned last year from the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre by an independent State watchdog, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. It found that New Zealand would need to cut its current livestock methane emissions by 10% to 22% (depending on how other countries perform), to ensure they cause no additional warming from 2050.
The only way to achieve reductions of that level is to reduce production
This is half the effort required of farmers in the government bill.
If you add the nitrous oxide target, Federated Farmers of New Zealand estimated that overall emissions from Kiwi agriculture would need to fall by around half.
“The only way to achieve reductions of that level is to reduce production,” said Federated Farmers’ climate change spokesperson Andrew Hoggard, warning of significant livestock culls.
By contrast, environmentalists have argued that the bill is too weak when it comes to enforcement of the targets. These questions will be at the centre of parliamentary debates scheduled for the rest of this year.
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