Methane emissions are a serious issue for the livestock sector, but there is an ongoing reexamination of its global warming capacity. Some countries, are now treating it differently to other greenhouse gases (GHGs), including New Zealand, which has created a separate reduction target for methane than for other GHGs.

Some on these shores suggest this is a sensible approach, so we sat down with NZ government officials to learn what exactly is happening there.

JK: What is New Zealand’s approach to reducing agricultural emissions?

NZ Government*: New Zealand has confirmed its intention to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions, including agricultural (methane and nitrous oxide) emissions. Legislation has been passed, setting both medium-term (2030) and longer-term (2050) domestic targets for all greenhouse gases, and requiring that a system be in place for pricing agricultural emissions at farm level by 2025.

Why has New Zealand taken a split-gas approach to methane?

There is broad agreement that methane emissions need to reduce in order for New Zealand to achieve its emissions reduction goals and its commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Due to the importance of agricultural production to New Zealand’s economy, and our high proportion of low-carbon renewable electricity generation, our country’s emissions profile has one of the highest proportion of agricultural sources of GHGs in the world. This sits at around 48% of total (gross) emissions. Of this, 71% is methane, with the rest made up of nitrous oxide (from fertiliser application and urine) and carbon dioxide.

New Zealand has many lakes, rivers and mountains and is very similar to Ireland.

Methane (CH4) is a relatively short-lived greenhouse gas, with a current lifetime in the atmosphere of just over 12 years, so if methane emissions are constant, the warming effect levels off within a few centuries. Therefore, reduction to net zero is not required.

However, there is still a need to reduce methane emissions to below current levels. In contrast, the long lifetime of carbon dioxide results in continuing accumulation in the atmosphere, causing warming to continue increasing until emissions are reduced to net zero.

A website for farmers – www.agmatters.nz – has been developed to explain how climate change and agriculture affect each other.

Reducing biogenic methane emissions by 24%-47% aligns with New Zealand’s efficiency improvement.

If current trends since 2016 continue, GHGs per unit of meat and milk production could reduce by approximately 29% by 2050, assuming production levels remained constant.

What have New Zealand experts said about methane?

Advice from both government and sector-commissioned research on methane reduction in New Zealand has been generally consistent with the target range of 1.5°C set out in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) special report on global warming. This found that global emissions of methane would need to reduce by 24%-47% from 2010 levels by 2050 to stay below this 1.5°C level.

New Zealand’s productivity commission (an independent crown entity) recommended in 2018 to set separate targets for short-lived gases (methane) and long-lived (carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) gases.

New Zealand’s parliamentary commissioner for the environment gave advice in 2018 and 2019 on potential domestic approaches to limit a global temperature increase to 1.5°C. It proposed “a separate target for emissions of biological methane and nitrous oxide, concluding that while both methane and nitrous oxide emissions have to be reduced, neither has necessarily to be reduced to zero.”

An interim climate change committee was established by the New Zealand government in 2018, to develop recommendations for reducing agricultural emissions

A report by a joint sector and government Biological Emissions Reference Group (BERG) (December 2018) concluded that current and potential future emissions reduction technologies (such as methane vaccines and methane inhibitors), if successful and widely implemented, could potentially reduce New Zealand’s overall biological emissions from agriculture by 22%-48% by 2050.

An interim climate change committee was established by the New Zealand government in 2018, to develop recommendations for reducing agricultural emissions. It took the previous research and analysis into account and engaged directly with researchers, the primary sector, Maori communities and others. The committee’s report in April 2019 recommended a pricing system for agricultural methane emissions to act as an effective incentive for reduction.

What is the target for methane reduction and how will this be achieved?

Domestic reduction targets have been set for all GHG emissions:

  • Reducing net emissions of all GHGs (except biogenic methane) to zero by 2050.
  • Reducing emissions of biogenic methane to 10% below 2017 levels by 2030 and to 24%-47% below 2017 levels by 2050.
  • These are set out in the Zero Carbon Amendment Act, passed in November 2019, which also introduced measures to facilitate and monitor New Zealand’s climate change policies.
  • Establishing a progressive emissions budget towards the long-term target.
  • Requiring the government develop and implement policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
  • Establishing a new, independent climate change commission to provide expert advice and monitoring to help keep successive governments on track towards long-term goals.
  • New requirements to help ensure the targets for agricultural emissions will be achieved are set out in the Emissions Trading Reform Amendment Act, passed in June 2020. This states that there will be a system in place for pricing agricultural livestock emissions at farm level, and for fertiliser emissions (nitrous oxide) at processor level, by 2025.

    The government is partnering with the primary sector and Maori communities to achieve these goals

    Several key milestones must be met before 2025, including implementation of farm level emissions reporting and use of individual farm plans with a climate change module. Progress towards 2025 will be monitored by the climate change commission. If progress towards these milestones is not on track by 2022, the government retains the option to bring agriculture into the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme.

    The government is partnering with the primary sector and Maori communities to achieve these goals.

    A partnership approach to agricultural emissions reduction was proposed by New Zealand’s food and fibre (agriculture, horticulture and arable) sectors, and the government consulted publicly on this approach in mid-2019.

    The result is the Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership, also known as He Waka Eke Noa (“We’re all in this together”). This is a partnership between the New Zealand government, its agriculture sectors and New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people.

    He Waka Eke Noa comprises 11 key agriculture sector organisations, including a collective of Maori agribusiness interests, and two government agencies – the Ministry for Primary Industries and Ministry for the Environment.

    Work has already begun on a joint action plan, working toward all farmers and growers, involving:

  • The mitigation of GHG emissions and adaptation to climate change in their farm business and environment plans by 2025.
  • Calculation of farm GHG emission sources and sinks, and the inclusion of incentives to take actions on climate change through the development of an appropriate pricing mechanism for emissions by 2025.
  • The partnership also has a wider vision for the future of the sector.

    For further information on He Waka Eke Noa, visit: www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/joint-action-plan-reducing-primary-sector-emissions.

    *New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries

    Read more

    New scheme to pay farmers to re-wet peatland this year

    Poots to request changes to greenhouse gas calculations

    Green light: what has been promised for farmers by the parties?