Have your say on the Zero Carbon Bill

The Zero Carbon Bill is an important piece of legislation which will determine how much of New Zealand’s response to climate change the farming sector has to carry. The Government presented its Zero Carbon Bill to Parliament in early May and this is now going through the Select Committee process.

The Bill attempts to establish a framework so New Zealand is contributing to the global effort to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We are prepared to play our part, but it should be on a fair and equitable basis with fossil fuel emitting sectors. As it stands, the Bill will impose enormous economic costs on the country and threaten many regional communities who depend on pastoral agriculture. The proposed methane targets in the Bill have been made without robust scientific analysis or economic impact assessment.

We oppose the target for gross methane emissions to be reduced by 10% by 2030 and 24-47% by 2050. The targets significantly exceed both New Zealand and global scientific advice and the government is asking more of agriculture than fossil fuel emitters. A “Net Zero” target for CO2 emissions will accelerate the conversion of otherwise productive pasture used for food production to pine forest. Not allowing trees to offset biological methane, as is allowed for fossil fuel emitters, exacerbates the unequal playing field, and is counter to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Such a reduction in farm production will have a serious effect on farmers, our business, rural communities and the wider economy. Alliance will be providing a submission on the Bill and we encourage farmers to also have their say. To help you, we have prepared a draft submission.

You can make your submission online by completing the parliamentary select committee form online here.

Download our submission form here – here
The closing date for submissions is Tuesday 16 July 2019.