Measuring Ag Emissions Too Costly – study
June 22nd, 2009
Agriculture’s inclusion in an Emissions Trading Scheme from 2013 is in doubt following advice to the Parliamentary Select Committee reviewing the scheme the cost of measurement may outweigh the benefits, at least in the short term. The joint NZIER/Infometrics report recommends an ETS as the best long term way to reduce NZ’s carbon emissions, but recommends against including the agricultural sector until cost-effective measurement systems are available, especially as “in the short term, such exemptions do not reduce economy-wide welfare.”
“Our recommendation in the short run is to introduce an ETS with free allocation to competitiveness-at-risk sectors, with agriculture excluded if measurement of its emissions is prohibitively expensive.” Numerous research efforts are under way into agricultural emission mitigation, adaptation and measurement, with 53% of NZ’s total greenhous gas emissions coming from gases other than CO2, mainly from pastoral agriculture. However, there is a long way to go. Researchers know different breeds, weather, and geography mean emissions from the same activity “can exhibit high degrees of temporal and spatial variability,” which are difficult to model and require greater understanding.
A Landcare Research-hosted seminar in November for the Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network will consider the issue further. The ETS currently envisages reporting of agricultural emissions from 2011, inclusion of these emissions with substantial free allocations from 2013. The sector becomes fully responsible for its emissions under the ETS from 2030 under current arrangements. Meanwhile, the Govt is bowing to the inevitable and delaying ETS reporting for forestry, which officially entered the scheme on January 1 last year.
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