As an owner of six sheep and beef farms in the South Island, I have a team actively working on methane mitigation.  

 

Right now, I am worried we are all missing the opportunity to truly do something about methane, and will hurt our primary sector in the process.   

 

Here are the facts:  

 

• Methane is 28 to 84 times more warming than CO2, depending on how you measure it. 

• If our methane emissions decrease, the earth’s warming will slow down much, much faster than if our CO2 emissions decreased at the same rate.

• Keeping methane emissions the same, has little impact on the planet’s current temperature.  This is because methane converts to water and (lower impact) CO2 after 12 years.  It is like running a bath with no plug – the water level will stay the same as long as you do not turn the tap up. ​

• Dairy, sheep and beef are a major source of methane emissions.  Increasing animal emissions, is a problem.  Decreasing animal emissions, is fantastic.  But, keeping animal emissions the same, adds almost no extra warming to our planet.   ​

• Farming is important.  Dairy, sheep and beef farming contributes $35B of export revenue to New Zealand’s economy each year.  It directly employs 85,000 people, and indirectly, many more.  Our produce feeds 40 million people around the world.  We do it cleaner than most.  ​

• Farming is also hard.  For sheep and beef, it is a low return on asset investment, high risk, and physically demanding.  Farmers simply cannot absorb another cost, and the technology to reduce methane emissions significantly, is not yet available.   ​

• Planting carbon pine forests, offering little environmental benefit for around 5 years, already provides a better return than sheep and beef farming and we are already seeing vast tracts of productive land being lost to forestry, at significant cost to our economy, rural communities and landscapes.   

 

So what?

 

• The Government’s split gas approach allows methane to be treated differently from CO2.  This is to be applauded.  

• However, in my view, the Government’s recent proposal on how to deal with agricultural emissions:

  • Is too expensive to be absorbed by many, many farmers;

  • Does not incentivise real investment, either by farmers or entrepreneurs, in technologies that will change the game.

• Any change to methane emissions from animals on-farm should be recognised for the scale of impact it has, so:

  • Any increase in methane is a big cost to the environment, so should be a big cost to the farmer; 

  • Any decrease in methane is a big benefit to the environment, so should be a big benefit to the farmer;

  • The status quo, for now, should be cost neutral, to protect our farms while technology catches up.

• Big costs change behaviour and big benefits drive investment.  We need both:  an instant cap on new emissions, and for farmers and investors to throw money at reducing emissions.

Solving the methane issue in our own backyard will give us international credibility to speak up to nations whose emissions determine the future of humankind.  Methane must not increase.  Reductions must be sought.  But taxing the status quo today, risks the viability of many farms in New Zealand.  We are smarter than this. 

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Tom Sturgess