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Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
The agricultural sector has recommended a farm-level levy, in its long awaited alternative to entering the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The He Waka Eke Noa partnership of 13 members includes DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ, Federated Farmers, the Federation of Maori Authorities, Dairy Companies of NZ, Horticulture NZ and Irrigation NZ.
They considered two pricing options - a farm-level levy requiring emissions reporting by individual farm and a processor-level hybrid levy, calculated at the meat, milk, and fertiliser processor level, based on the overall quantity of product received from farms.
Both had a split-gas approach, which means different levy rates would apply to short-lived gases like methane, and long-lived gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
Farmers argued for the opportunity to devise an alternative to being included in the Emissions Trading Scheme, arguing it would not incentivise reduction of emissions and would also expose them to a broad based tax that would increase every year.
Kathryn will speak to Kelly Forster, programme director of He Waka Eke Noa, Jim van der Poel, a dairy farmer from Ngahinapouri and the chair of Dairy NZ, and Nicky Hyslop, who has a sheep and beef farm in Canterbury and is a farmer director at Beef and Lamb.