Agriculture – Post 2012

1. Agriculture – Post 2012 Gerald Rys Natural Resources Group Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

2. Agriculture and the Kyoto Protocol • Agriculture and non carbon dioxide greenhouse gasses separately specified under the UNFCCC and KP. • Agriculture Sector seen as no different than other GHG emitting sectors ie transport, energy that are accounted for by Annex 1 Parties • 12.5% of global emissions - 4% from animal agriculture • New Zealand has high proportion of emissions from agriculture – 52% in 1990 and 48% in 2005 – 3rd as a % in the world. More akin to a developing country emissions profile • The biological nature of the sector – far greater complexity and uncertainties than most other sectors.

3. Will Agriculture be included under a post 2012 Climate Change Regime? • Almost certainly • Global political environment has changed • Sense that everything must be done • Trend is toward more complete accounting • Soil carbon under agriculture may become a focus with more complete accounting requirements • This may be problematic for NZ until a full assessment has been made under the LUCAS e.g. soil erosion, losses under intensive agriculture vs soil C increases under change cropping systems. • Negotiators conscious of need for certainty but note the biological uncertainty of biological systems

4. Negotiating the Post 2012 Framework • No specific new proposals around agriculture • New Zealand needs to distinguish grazing animal agriculture as a specific farming operation with specific features • Information on mitigation potential needs to be provided particularly for grazing animal agriculture • Interest from developing countries as they also posses significant grazing animal agriculture systems e.g. Uruguay

5. International Research Partnership • In February 2007 Cabinet policy committee agreed in principle, subject to the outcome of discussions with other countries and budget decisions, to launch an international research partnership on agricultural greenhouse gases at the Third Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture conference held in Christchurch from 26 -29 November 2007.

6. International CC Research Partnership • $Im per annum fund approved by Cabinet in May 2007 to support international agriculture and forestry research cooperation: The objectives are: • provide a framework to coordinate international research efforts to mitigate greenhouse gases from animal agriculture; • support New Zealand’s negotiating position for agriculture in future climate change commitments post -2012; • support information sharing on mitigation and measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and facilitate the development of internationally agreed emissions factors and mitigation methodologies for animal agriculture; • attract more domestic and international investment in research related to reducing emissions from agriculture; • provide a mechanism for engaging with developing counties through capacity building activities.

7. Other activities to date • presented at various workshops of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice in Bonn and Ad Hoc Working group of the UNFCCC in 2006; • organised and co-hosted two successful side-events (with Ireland, Argentina, UK, US) at the latest climate change meetings in Bonn in May 2007. NZ supported the attendance of Argentina at this event; • with Ireland organised a technical meeting in the margins of Bonn in May 2007 to discuss possible collaboration on agricultural greenhouse gas research. Technical agricultural experts (both science and inventory) from developed and developing countries were represented; • was invited by the Convention Secretariat to be a member of a panel on non-CO2 emissions and the role of sinks, as part of a roundtable providing background to support work by the Ad Hoc Working Group on the analysis of mitigation potentials and ranges of emission objectives of Annex I countries.