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A workshop for farmers to find out how to measure their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is being held in Wellsford on April 11.
The event is being organised by Beef + Lamb NZ, which says that farmers being able to measure and manage their GHG emissions will be an important contribution to keeping farming out of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
“By the end of 2022, all farmers need to know their GHG numbers and by 2025, all farmers must have a written plan in place to measure and manage their GHG emissions,” a spokesperson says.
“Knowing those numbers provides a good base of information and will help farmers prepare for future requirements.”
The workshop will be held at the Wellsford Community Centre and will be in four sections:
• An explanation of why every farm should know its GHG numbers and have a plan;
• A case study demonstration of what GHG calculation involves;
• Completing the GHG calculation for your farm;
• How to complete a GHG action plan with examples of farm systems, and management actions that can be taken to sustainably manage GHG emissions.
A Changing Climate: Know Your Numbers will run from 10am to 2pm. Attendees must register, scan in and show their vaccine passes.
Beef + Lamb NZ, together with Dairy NZ, are part of the primary sector climate action partnership He Waka Eke Noa, which has developed two alternative emission pricing options for farmers designed to keep the industry out of the Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme. A series of online and in-person meetings have been held over the past few weeks to get farmer feedback, before recommendations are presented to the Ministers for Climate Change and Agriculture in May.
Dairy NZ chair Jim van der Poel says that even with feedback still being heard, there is a trend toward farm-level pricing where farmers would be credited for work to reduce emissions.
“It is encouraging to see the level of debate and discussion. We are looking at how to incorporate that feedback to further strengthen the options we have presented,” he says.
However, farming lobby group Groundswell NZ believes the two He Waka Eke Noa options are unworkable, would punish production and take hundreds of millions of dollars from farmers. Co-founder Bryce McKenzie is urging farmers to read and support Groundswell’s alternative proposal.
“In our alternative, we propose an integrated environmental policy framework, covering all environmental policy to break down the policy-making silos that produce contradictory and unworkable regulations,” he says.
Info: https://beeflambnz.com/events, https://www.dairynz.co.nz/environment/climate-change/he-waka-eke-noa and www.savefarming.nz
