Groser optimistic after agricultural greenhouse gases meeting

Tim Groser. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases' inaugural meeting, which wound up in Wellington yesterday, went well, the Government says.

The meeting of senior officials and scientists from the alliance's 29 member countries, with China, Brazil and Korea attending as observers, was largely about giving organisational form to the political decision in Copenhagen last December to launch a collaborative effort on cutting emissions from agriculture.

It will divide into three work streams. New Zealand and the Netherlands are to co-ordinate work on livestock, while the United States leads research on cropping and Japan on paddy rice (a significant source of methane).

The alliance is intended to increase connectivity between the research efforts of member countries, identify gaps in existing research and look for opportunities for collaboration.

Even though agriculture is responsible for around 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions - similar to the contribution from transport - there has been comparatively little research on how to reduce them, largely because it is a much bigger problem for developing countries than developed ones.

The Minister responsible for International Climate Change negotiations, Tim Groser, who chaired the meeting, said New Zealand had been given the responsibility for the follow-up.

"We have to come up with a further draft of the work programme and of the charter, the foundation principles of this global alliance. That is politically delicate."

The decision to launch the alliance was one of the few positive outcomes of the fractious Copenhagen conference.

Groser said it had been important at the Wellington meeting to avoid the politics of climate change getting in the way of sensible people with a common research objective. "From time to time we were walking on egg shells because those positions are still sitting out there ... which were responsible for less than optimal outcomes in Copenhagen.

"We still have to steer this through troubled waters over the next 12 months," he said.

The Government has committed $45 million over four years to the alliance.