Federated Farmers: Serious flaws remain in rushed emissions reform legislation

Year-old carbon sink planting on Tuscan Hills east of Pahiatua.

Federated Farmers is disappointed that emissions trading reform legislation was passed recently without serious concerns raised during consultation being addressed.

Federated Farmers climate change spokesman Andrew Hoggard says the economic repercussions of Covid-19 are squeezing businesses and households and the last thing consumers and farmers need is a price hike of services and utilities such as electricity and petrol.

"There has been no analysis undertaken since the pandemic on how sweeping changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will impact our economy, our international competitiveness, and therefore the standard of living enjoyed by all New Zealanders," he said.

A particular concern for farmers is that the legislation incentivises the acceleration of productive farmland being converted to pines planted not for wood but for carbon credits.

"We lose farm production from that land, and thus export dollars. We lose real jobs, and the districts' schools, contracting businesses and community networks are gutted.

"With pine forests grown just to clip the carbon credit ticket, there's no pruning gangs, no saw milling jobs at the end of it. The mostly absentee owners will just plant the trees and close the gate, effectively abandoning the land from ever re-entering productive use. And nothing is actually achieved in terms of getting greenhouse gas emissions down. Is that really in the nation's best interests?" Hoggard asks.

About 70,000 hectares of productive sheep and beef land has already been converted to forestry since 2019, and carbon-related investment has been a key driver for this, he says.

"As an alternative to putting agriculture in the ETS under a pointless processor-based levy, Federated Farmers is very pleased the Government agreed to take up the Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment. Otherwise known as He Waka Eke Noa, this encompasses sector-driven initiatives to account for, and drive down, emissions on farm."

However, Hoggard says, the reform legislation fails to deal with aligning the agreed He Waka Eke Noa milestones with the farm production year - the basis for farmers' software systems - rather than the calendar year.

"It also shows bad faith by persisting with the inclusion of agriculture in the ETS as a 'fall-back option'."

He says Federated Farmers will continue engaging in the He Waka Eke Noa partnership and will advocate for the development of a fit-for-purpose pricing mechanism that lowers global greenhouse gas emissions while not reducing food production.