B+LNZ is pleased to see the European Union’s new livestock strategy take a more balanced approach to livestock methane emissions, recognising farmers as valuable partners in delivering climate and food security outcomes.
“Over the last 10 years, the narrative in Europe has focused on the climate impact of livestock production and the perceived need to reduce stock numbers,” says Rowena Hume, general manager policy and communications at B+LNZ.
“The new EU strategy aims to set out a roadmap to help the livestock sector thrive across Europe and reverse production reductions.
“It recognises the importance of food production and references the preferred benefits of extensive grazing, which New Zealand predominantly does.”
"The strategy recognises there is 'discussion about the need to take account of the biogenic nature of methane emissions as part of a short-term carbon cycle and that more refined approaches are needed to ensure a more accurate and fair assessment of livestock’s climate performance.”' This has been interpreted by many as a small but significant shift by the EU towards recognising the split-gas nature of methane.
“What is also very important from a New Zealand perspective is that there is no mention of methane reduction targets and/or mention of the pricing agricultural emissions.
“Instead, the focus is on more accurately measuring on-farm emission and rewarding farmers for reducing emissions through use of technologies or genetics.
“The EU strategy demonstrates New Zealand is not an outlier in our approach and that changes made to our policies to agriculture and climate change are aligned with the global approach,” says Hume.
“Commentary in the EU has referred to the influence of New Zealand and Ireland on the EU’s shift and work by New Zealand agricultural industries to build awareness of the different impact of methane.
“That’s satisfying as internationally, over the past five years, B+LNZ has done a lot of work in this area behind the scenes.
“This has included working closely with our EU, UK and North American counterparts to encourage them to push for methane to be treated differently in line with science - 44 agricultural organisations across over a dozen countries have signed up to our letter on taking a split gas approach to methane.
“Things are moving in the right direction and we’ll continue to work hard to get other countries to follow suit.“
However, Hume says B+LNZ has some concerns about the strategy’s approach to ensuring imported products compete on the same terms with EU producers.
“New Zealand should be well positioned to meet these standards as we have high animal welfare rules and very low antibiotic use, but we cannot assume New Zealand will be recognised as equivalent.
“As we have seen with EU deforestation regulation, the EU can use such measures to impose trade restrictions.
“Despite our significant afforestation trends, we have had to invest in expensive and complex systems to demonstrate compliance.
“Our priority must be ensuring European policymakers understand our farming systems and recognise how they deliver comparable outcomes.
“Any new trade measures must remain outcomes-based, evidence-based, proportionate and implemented in a manner consistent with the EU’s FTA obligations and wider international trade rules.”