The following statement was made by B+LNZ Chair Kate Acland in response to the independent panel’s findings.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand welcomes the Independent Scientific Review on Biogenic Methane Science and Targets.
This is an important contribution to the conversation about emissions and warming and science-based targets.
B+LNZ has long advocated for a review of New Zealand’s methane targets based on a warming approach.
Sheep and beef farmers recognise they have a role to play and have already reduced our absolute emissions by over 30 percent since 1990.
What our farmers are looking for is a fair and balanced approach. Methane should only be asked to do what is being asked of the other gases, which is to achieve no additional warming.
The independent panel finding is that reductions in the range of 14–24 percent by 2050 would see methane not add any additional warming from 2017 levels, depending on how quickly the rest of the world reduces its emissions.
The independent panel’s findings are an improvement on the current methane targets but would still be a stretch for the sector.
We need to study the panel’s report in more detail, but its findings appear similar to a report we commissioned earlier in the year by leading climate scientists.
Our research also showed that the current methane targets would see New Zealand peak its warming in the 2030s and reverse back to 2022-27 levels, which is well ahead of most other countries that are currently aiming to achieve peak warming (‘net zero’) from 2050.
New Zealand can therefore revise downwards its methane targets and still hold its head up high internationally.
The independent panel notes that New Zealand’s net zero targets for long-lived gases, coupled with a target of no-additional warming from methane, would see New Zealand achieve climate neutrality. This would be consistent with the definition of climate neutrality in the IPCC report on global warming of 1.5°C.
We encourage the Government to consider the independent panel’s findings carefully and to make a swift decision so that farmers have certainty.
We also hope that it is possible to find an enduring solution, as we do not want the methane targets to become a political football.
ENDS
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