National’s climate moo-turn: Agricultural emissions pricing delayed to 2030

National is kicking agricultural emissions pricing to next decade, saying the sector will stay out of the Emissions Trading Scheme and only face an emissions price by 2030.

Farmers will begin paying emissions prices in 2025 under the current Government’s proposals. The Government is still ironing out the scheme for how this will happen, but has not shifted from the 2025 date.

National’s scheme would measure emissions at the farm level from 2025, but farmers would only begin paying an emissions price in 2030.

From 2025, farmers would also be able to claim credits for on-farm sequestration - essentially the trees planted on farms.

The party will also review the Government’s legislated targets for reducing biogenic methane emissions in 2024.

National’s climate spokesman Simon Watts said the party would look to meet emissions targets by targeting the likes of transport and energy creation, rather than agriculture.

“Around half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture but finding a sustainable pathway to reduce agricultural emissions, when we are among the most emission efficient farmers in the world, without decimating our most important economic sector is a major long-term challenge for New Zealand,” Watts said.

“Forty per cent of our emissions come from transport and energy. Switching the transport and energy sectors to clean energy could deliver almost a third of the total emission reductions New Zealand needs to reach Net Zero by 2050,” he said.

“National is committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050, but we believe New Zealand’s path to emission reductions in agriculture is through technology, not less production,” Watts said.

Agriculture spokesman Todd McClay said National would unveil a pricing system closer to 2030.

Like He Waka Eke Noa, the scheme will see farmers pay for their emissions at the farm level, and it would be based on a split gas approach, with farmers paying different prices for different emissions.

The pricing mechanism will be set in 2024 by an independent Agricultural Emissions Pricing Board, which will be established in 2024.

The pricing system will be based on the following five principes:

• No leakage, as sending production to less carbon-efficient farms overseas will make New Zealand poorer while likely increasing global emissions.

• The price must remain in line with our major agricultural competitors and trade partners so as not to damage New Zealand’s international competitiveness.

• The price should be set at the lowest level needed to achieve our emissions reduction targets, subject to no leakage.

• Farmers should have access to the tools and technologies they need to reduce on-farm emissions before an emissions price is introduced.

• Agricultural emissions pricing should operate with minimum compliance costs and give maximum certainty to support investment