Efficiency is the answer

THE HE WAKA EKE NOA DEAL HAS been put to the Government and we wait on whether or not it will be accepted.

Is it a fair deal? It was made under duress so many farmers would say no.

It was Hobson’s choice. Supporters say it is better than going into the ETS.

Industry bodies may think it is the best deal they could strike, but many farmers will see it as just another tax. Farmers with mortgages to pay and trying to make a living in an uncertain, inflationary environment, will not welcome this deal.

It is a political problem and needs a political answer not a farmer one. If accepted by the Government it will buy some time before the general election about 16 months away. The Government seems to be in decline and doing everything it can not to be elected.

The question is will an incoming Government allow He Waka to be scrapped or even changed? It’s a question farmers need to know well before voting next year.

Expert advice to farmers is not to rush in. Farmers need to push for more details before creating a plan or reducing emissions. What they have to do is work out their emissions and sequestration numbers before the end of the year.

He Waka is politically expedient rather than efficient.

Do we need to be the first country to tax ag emissions? We already have a great story, low carbon footprint and a cooling, not warming effect on the planet. Action affecting food production is contrary to the Paris Accord.

A more efficient way to reduce greenhouse gases is not to tax, but to leave farmers to continue as world leaders at farming with a low carbon footprint. The red meat sector has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 30% since 1990 through efficiency. Greater efficiency meant more product from fewer stock.

The industry bodies had argued all along that He Waka Eke Noa and methane targets were separate issues despite critics saying it was like saying petrol and oil prices were separate.

A week after the announcement of the final He Waka proposal to Government, Dairy NZ and Beef + Lamb NZ chairmen, Jim van der Poel and Andrew Morrison put out a statement saying methane is not the problem. The measurement used by the Government, GWP100, was accurate for carbon, not methane. It hugely overstates biogenic methane’s warming impact. The GWP* was a better measurement for methane and reflecting the warming impact.

Groundswell and its supporters should be furious. A grassroot organisation made up of volunteers who put in countless hours for more than a year to argue for GWP* and focus on the warming effect, not emissions.

Farmers will be asking why did the industry bodies choose He Waka Eke Noa, a tax, as the option when methane isn’t the problem.