The Joint Action Plan on Primary Sector Emissions (He Waka Eke Noa) is an innovative partnership to reduce primary sector agricultural emissions.
What is He Waka Eke Noa?
In late 2019, the agricultural sector and government agreed to work together to establish a regulatory framework to measure, manage and reduce on-farm agriculture greenhouse gas emissions and enable farmers to adapt to climate change.
This new and innovative Joint Action Plan on Primary Sector Emissions is called He Waka Eke Noa.
The partnership approach gives farmers input into the process and means they’ll be better enabled to take action on climate change on-farm. By 2025 He Waka Eke Noa aims to ensure all farmers are:
- including climate change mitigation and adaptation in their farm business and environment plans
- calculating their net greenhouse gas emissions and being incentivised to take action on climate change through an appropriate pricing mechanism for emissions.
Update 8 June 2022: recommendations publicly released
The He Waka Eke Noa partnership – including B+LNZ – has publicly released its recommendations to the Government on an agricultural emissions pricing system as an alternative to the sector entering the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The recommendation, which was influenced by farmer feedback undertaken in February and March, is for a farm-level levy on agricultural emissions with built-in incentives to reduce emissions and sequester carbon. The Government will now decide whether it will accept this recommendation. Find out more here.
Key information
Find more information about the key milestones and workstreams on the He Waka Eke Noa website.
- View the He Waka Eke Noa programme structure.
- View the He Waka Eke Noa five-year programme overview.
B+LNZ’s role
B+LNZ is one of 13 partners involved in He Waka Eke Noa. B+LNZ is represented on the steering group, which was appointed by Government and the Food and Fibre Leaders Forum, by Dave Harrison, our General Manager – Policy & Advocacy:
- analysing the risks and opportunities facing the sheep and beef sector,
- identifying what the sector needs to know, and
- helping people decide what action to take in response to those issues.
Learn more about the partners and steering group members on the He Waka Eke Noa website.
How B+LNZ tools relate to He Waka Eke Noa guidance
The He Waka Eke Noa programme has released farm planning guidance and B+LNZ’s new farm planning approach incorporates this guidance. Our farm plans are a user-friendly way for farmers to develop a plan for managing their emissions and meeting the sector’s climate change commitments.
The He Waka Eke Noa programme has also released a list of tools that have been assessed as meeting the requirements for calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (and, for some tools, sequestration). This includes B+LNZ’s free GHG calculator.
Find out more
Contact B+LNZ Dave Harrison with questions about He Waka Eke Noa.
We will provide farmers with more information about He Waka Eke Noa as the programme progresses.