Get 'Farming Leaders' to actually support farmers on the Carbon Zero Bill

Get 'Farming Leaders' to actually support farmers on the Carbon Zero Bill

Started
10 July 2018
Petition to
Farming Leaders (Fonterra, B&L, DNZ and Feds)
Signatures: 3,427Next goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Steven Cranston

Help encourage farming ‘leaders’ to stand up for the people they represent. This petition calls on John Wilson (Fonetrra), Tim Mackle (Dairy NZ), Sam McIvor (Beef and Lamb) and Katie Milne (Federated Farmers) to come out and start supporting New Zealand agriculture’s very strong science based case to avoid a costly and politically motivated ETS policy.

Methane emissions are now stabilised and do not contribute to any further warming of the atmosphere while agricultures’ N2O emissions are offset by the 1.4 million hectares of native bush.

The 6,688,000 t CO2 equivalent of N2O emitted in 2016 would only need about 500,000 ha of native forest to offset at the standard sequestration rate of 13t/CO2/ha/yr. Yes, further research is required to confirm actual sequestration rates but lets start pointing out the obvious eh.

New Zealand Agriculture does not contribute to any warming of the atmosphere as of 2018.

The very weak and directionless submissions and public statements by farming leaders is of great concern and should not continue.  

Farming leaders should publicly support these 5 key principles:

1.       Farm trees are expected to offset all ‘net’ agricultural emissions thus no warming is currently created by agriculture.

2.       Pre-1990 trees should be included in agriculture’s GHG budget. There is no clause in the Paris agreement which prohibits this and contrary to the Government’s rather unusual position, pre-1990 trees also sequester Carbon.

3.       We support the idea of stabilising Methane at 1990 levels. This is about the same level as 2018 coincidentally and will mean agriculture has not increased atmospheric methane levels since the IPCC was created and climate change became public knowledge.

4.       So long as agriculture does not contribute to further warming, there should be no net transfer of ETS tax to the government.  If farmer’s are not adding to the problem, what is the justification for the penalty?

5.       We would like to work with the government to ensure the ETS is constructed in a way that will demonstrate to the world that our products are ‘warming neutral’

 If farming leaders disagree with any of the above that should clearly say why they do. If they do stand behind these points, agriculture can expect a smart, science based ETS that will improve public awareness and help promote our environmentally sustainable image to the world.

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Signatures: 3,427Next goal: 5,000
Support now
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Decision makers

  • Farming LeadersFonterra, B&L, DNZ and Feds