Open Letter to Party Leaders

F.A.R.M. – Facts About Ruminant Methane is a rapidly growing organisation formed by farmers and scientists concerned with misinformation about ruminant Methane and its effects on the environment.

Dear Party Leaders

Following the release of all political party’s plans to deal with the issue of agricultural emissions FARM is concerned with the level of misunderstanding on this subject and we stress the urgent need to have environmental and agricultural policy based on sound science.

We wish to make several important points and seek your response, please:

A. Biological emissions from agriculture are mostly methane which is very different to CO2 and other long-lived gases and this difference is not given enough consideration in policies. 

B. The claim that biological emissions from agriculture make up 48% of our total contribution to global warming is demonstrably and palpably untrue.  In fact, most of them which are sourced from methane cause no warming at all.  

C.The emissions of ruminant methane in New Zealand are not causing an increase in atmospheric Greenhouse Gas because the emissions are stable and cyclical. Because of the carbon/methane natural cycle nothing is being added to the atmosphere to cause any further warming.

D. The claim that methane is a more potent trace gas than CO2 is irrelevant because the emissions of methane from our livestock are not causing an increase in atmospheric Greenhouse Gas. 

E. The only matter that policymakers need to consider when deciding climate policy on a particular activity is whether that activity is causing an increase in Greenhouse Gas or not. It should be clear from the above points that the answer is a categorical “no”.

Our group is interested in your response to these facts and what evidence you can show that biological methane is causing an increase in Greenhouse Gas and therefore increased warming.

Please respond stating whether your Party agrees with these facts and whether you would oppose any measures, existing or proposed, that would contravene the principles involved. If not, please explain why you would not.

Carbon emissions(CO2, methane, nitrous oxide etc) which cause an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas should not be compared to and equated to emissions which do not. The CO2 equivalence system attempts to do this and is therefore not fit for purpose and should not be used.

Farmers should not be victimized by policies the Government has to put in place to meet emission reduction targets which were ill advised at the time. The international targets New Zealand agreed to should have factored in that emissions of ruminant methane do not need to reduce in order to prevent further warming.  This was known thirty years ago and more recently articulated in the Motu Report of 2016 Cows, Sheep and Science: A Scientific Perspective on Biological Emissions from Agriculture which was commissioned by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment which was contributed to by a number of New Zealand climate scientists and concluded that; To stabilise the climate emissions of methane do not have to decline to zero; they only have to stop increasing.

The Ministry for the Environment acknowledges this quite clearly in the Carbon Zero consultation document when it says “stabilizing methane emissions would mean our domestic emissions would not contribute to any further increases in global temperatures”.

Policies such as pricing emissions which are not causing any increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas are not justifiable and nor will they be effective in any case. Please be aware that ruminant methane emissions are not priced and have increased some 5% since 1990 while transport emissions which are priced in the ETS have increased over 100% in that time. Pricing emissions has achieved no more than to bring financial hardship to New Zealand families.

In the case of reducing ruminant methane there is no scenario anticipated that will allow farmers to reduce absolute emissions that does not see a cap put on production or a reduction in output. With a growing world population you are not only obligated under the Paris Agreement to not take any action that threatens food production but you are also obligated to allow New Zealand farmers to provide as much of that increased demand as can be sustainably produced because if New Zealand farmers do not produce this requirement under our low emissions regime, it will be supplied from other much higher emissions producing countries, a totally counterproductive move.

Reducing emissions which do not need reducing in the first place by curtailing production of food is inhumane. We urge you to consider the greater good of the planet and its people rather than adopt selfish emissions reduction policies that have no scientific or practical justification.

Using the current regulations and the accepted Global Warming Potential (GWP) figure for Methane of 28 an average dairy farmer faces taxes of $60,000 p.a. at a carbon price of $35.00 per tonne.  The NZIER has reported to the Government that the carbon price would need to reach over $500 per tonne for zero emissions to be achieved by 2050.  That would inflict an impossible burden on farming. 

F.A.R.M would be pleased to assist you with any of these issues.  We urge you to be fully aware of the science involved and the potential for severely impacting the nation’s most efficient producers – economically and environmentally.