Reporting non-CO2

Policies and Measures in National Communications

Andrew Johnson

New Zealand Climate Change Office

Outline of Presentation

NZ Context and Background Inventory What was reported in NZ’s 3NC Agricultural Emissions Policy Projections

Govt agencies involved in climate change policy in NZ

Central GovernmentDepartment of Prime Minister and Cabinet

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

Ministry of Economic Development

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Ministry of Research, Science, &Technology

Ministry of Transport

Te Puni Kokiri (Maori Development)

Treasury

Crown Research InstitutesNational Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences

Landcare Research

Forest Research

AgResearch

Ministry for the Environment

Climate Change Office

Crown EntitiesEnergy Efficiency and Conservation Authority

Breakdown of NZ’s emissions by gas(all figures CO2e)

Emissions by gas in 2002

PFCs83.50Gg

0.1%

SF6

12.91Gg0.0%

HFCs387.59Gg

0.5%

N2O13,159.68Gg

17.6%

CH4

27,562.86Gg36.8%

CO2 (w ithout LUCF)

33,769.80Gg45.0%

Enteric Fermentation23,584.68Gg

64.0%

Field Burning of Agricultural Residues29.93Gg

0.1%

Prescribed Burning of Savannas

1.00Gg0.0%

Agricultural Soils12,617.71Gg

34.2%

Manure Management

623.33Gg1.7%

Agricultural emissions 2002 (all figures CO2e)

From NZ’s 3NC…The Government is committed to investing in

technologies to reduce agricultural methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

Technologies to reduce ruminant methane are showing promise but are far from commercial applicability.

NZ’s agricultural emissions were fairly static over the 1990s because of the removal of agricultural subsidies

Changing methodologies Since its 3NC New Zealand has changed its

methodology from Tier 1 to Tier 2 for enteric methane emissions calculations

Tier 2 is quantitatively more advanced: it uses monthly time steps for feed intake for each animal species: sheep, dairy and beef cattle and deer.

Changes in animal productivity since 1990 are now picked up by Tier 2.

NZ’s agricultural emissions gradually increased in the 1990s – although animal numbers decreased, performance increased along with emissions.

Policy for agriculture On-farm agriculture will be exempt from a charge on methane

and nitrous oxide emissions. The sector has been asked to work with the Government to

invest in research into methane and nitrous oxide mitigation technologies and practices.

An agreement has been signed between the Government and agricultural sector bodies - co-coordinated through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium.

New Zealand will however introduce a carbon charge on energy emissions from 2007.

Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium Established in November 2002 Industry funds used to develop one or more GHG

mitigation solutions that can be implemented within NZ’s agricultural industries that: are practical, in terms of overall economics, product and

animal safety; will produce sustainable results that are accepted by the

international regulatory authorities and our customers; Reduce GHG production by 20% compared to BAU by

2010.

Challenges to measuring mitigation Establishing cause and effect. Are mitigation technologies additive or not? Increasing animal productivity poses a challenge to

accurately measuring the effect of mitigation policies.

Up-scaling to the national level and data collection on mitigation measures faces practical hurdles: Farmer surveys can have low response rates and are

difficult administer to a geographically distributed agricultural sector.

Using firms’ sales information can raise commercial confidentiality issues

Agricultural Emission ProjectionsDriven by three key factors

Animal numbers and the balance of speciesChanges in the performance of individual animal

speciesProjected increases in the amount of nitrogen

fertiliser usedLong term projections for agriculture are

challenging.

Animal Number ProjectionsUses models that are driven by previous

animal numbers, changes in land area available, commodity prices, exchange rates

Sheep numbers have decreased and have been replaced by dairy cattle, deer and forestry planted at an average of 20,000 ha /annum.

Animal PerformanceThere have been increases in all parameters

of animal performance. Data is obtained from national surveys of animal slaughter weights, milk production, wool weight , lambing %

Projections to 2010 derived from extrapolation of the linear relationships on the above parameters between 1990 and 2003

Nitrogen Fertiliser Use Projections

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

0 5 10 15 20

Year since 1990

N f

erti

lise

r us

ed (

tonn

es N

)Use of a linear projection to 2010 derived from data from 1990 to 2003. Various other relationships explored.

Conclusions Polices and measures for agriculture ultimately

need to be evaluated at a farm scale and for all three major GHGs collectively.

Measurement/estimation/reporting of Ag GHGs and the mitigation strategies to address them, will continue to be a challenge.

National inventory has to be developed so that it reflects the incorporation of mitigation solutions.

Countries need to work together to resolve these difficult issues.