01 December 2022
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Proposals will be counter-productive, new submission states.
PNZ (Potatoes New Zealand) and Vegetables NZ recently made a combined submission expressing concerns about government proposals regarding He Waka Eke Noa and opposing a new grower emissions levy.
He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) is a partnership between industry, Māori and Government seeking to implement a framework by 2025 to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and build the agriculture sector’s resilience to climate change.
In 2021 PNZ carried out an industry consultation on HWEN and more recently on the Government’s recommendations on agricultural pricing of emissions. Fifteen key queries came up during the consultation which have now been inluded in the submission.
Growers object to being brought into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), stating that it won't be effective or practical in potato-growing.
Vegetable and potato growers collectively account for only 0.032% of all agricultural emissions and they feel they should be exempt, along with other minor contributors. Growers feel the proposed emissions levy on fertiliser doesn’t create any meaningful additional economic incentive for change in fertiliser use for their sector, while limiting their options and increasing their cost of living whilst carrying an administrative cost out of proportion to the value of the levy itself.
They state that if vegetable growers are brought into the agricultural emissions pricing regime, the emissions levy on fertiliser should be administered entirely by the fertiliser companies (processors) themselves, and included in the price of fertiliser
Other sectors such as poultry have been granted exemptions from the Emissions Pricing on the basis of being “minor-emitting sectors”.
Source: PNZ
