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Reporting non-CO 2 Policies and Measures in National Communications Andrew Johnson New Zealand Climate Change Office. Outline of Presentation. NZ Context and Background Inventory What was reported in NZ’s 3NC Agricultural Emissions Policy Projections.
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Reporting non-CO2 Policies and Measures in National Communications Andrew Johnson New Zealand Climate Change Office
Outline of Presentation • NZ Context and Background • Inventory • What was reported in NZ’s 3NC • Agricultural Emissions Policy • Projections
Govt agencies involved in climate change policy in NZ Central Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Ministry of Economic Development Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry of Research, Science, &Technology Ministry of Transport Te Puni Kokiri (Maori Development) Treasury Ministry for the Environment Climate Change Office Crown Research Institutes National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Landcare Research Forest Research AgResearch Crown Entities Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
From NZ’s 3NC… • The Government is committed to investing in technologies to reduce agricultural methane and nitrous oxide emissions. • Technologies to reduce ruminant methane are showing promise but are far from commercial applicability. • NZ’s agricultural emissions were fairly static over the 1990s because of the removal of agricultural subsidies
Changing methodologies • Since its 3NC New Zealand has changed its methodology from Tier 1 to Tier 2 for enteric methane emissions calculations • Tier 2 is quantitatively more advanced: it uses monthly time steps for feed intake for each animal species: sheep, dairy and beef cattle and deer. • Changes in animal productivity since 1990 are now picked up by Tier 2. • NZ’s agricultural emissions gradually increased in the 1990s – although animal numbers decreased, performance increased along with emissions.
Policy for agriculture • On-farm agriculture will be exempt from a charge on methane and nitrous oxide emissions. • The sector has been asked to work with the Government to invest in research into methane and nitrous oxide mitigation technologies and practices. • An agreement has been signed between the Government and agricultural sector bodies - co-coordinated through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium. • New Zealand will however introduce a carbon charge on energy emissions from 2007.
Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium • Established in November 2002 • Industry funds used to develop one or more GHG mitigation solutions that can be implemented within NZ’s agricultural industries that: • are practical, in terms of overall economics, product and animal safety; • will produce sustainable results that are accepted by the international regulatory authorities and our customers; • Reduce GHG production by 20% compared to BAU by 2010.
Challenges to measuring mitigation • Establishing cause and effect. • Are mitigation technologies additive or not? • Increasing animal productivity poses a challenge to accurately measuring the effect of mitigation policies. • Up-scaling to the national level and data collection on mitigation measures faces practical hurdles: • Farmer surveys can have low response rates and are difficult administer to a geographically distributed agricultural sector. • Using firms’ sales information can raise commercial confidentiality issues
Agricultural Emission Projections • Driven by three key factors • Animal numbers and the balance of species • Changes in the performance of individual animal species • Projected increases in the amount of nitrogen fertiliser used • Long term projections for agriculture are challenging.
Animal Number Projections • Uses models that are driven by previous animal numbers, changes in land area available, commodity prices, exchange rates • Sheep numbers have decreased and have been replaced by dairy cattle, deer and forestry planted at an average of 20,000 ha /annum.
Animal Performance • There have been increases in all parameters of animal performance. Data is obtained from national surveys of animal slaughter weights, milk production, wool weight , lambing % • Projections to 2010 derived from extrapolation of the linear relationships on the above parameters between 1990 and 2003
Nitrogen Fertiliser Use Projections • Use of a linear projection to 2010 derived from data from 1990 to 2003. Various other relationships explored.
Conclusions • Polices and measures for agriculture ultimately need to be evaluated at a farm scale and for all three major GHGs collectively. • Measurement/estimation/reporting of Ag GHGs and the mitigation strategies to address them, will continue to be a challenge. • National inventory has to be developed so that it reflects the incorporation of mitigation solutions. • Countries need to work together to resolve these difficult issues.