Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Consultation Event Feedback Template
Instructions:
• One template is to be fil ed in per consultation event and provided to Allen + Clarke following each consultation event for
inclusion in the overall analysis. In the first instance, the primary audience is Al en + Clarke, who wil focus thematic feedback,
but these wil also serve as our primary record/notes for each session.
• Use the prompts provided as suggestions to capture as much information as possible. However, you do not have to answer
every prompt, and can vary from the specific question if this wil better capture the themes and information provided in the
session.
• Capture as many Q&As as possible in the designated row and duplicate the row for each new question. If you know that the
question has already come up and been answered similarly, or exists in our FAQs, you can make a call on either not capturing
it or referencing the relevant FAQ.
• Please file here, or email to 9(2)(g)(ii)
if you cannot access the link.
Date:
Tuesday 25th October 2022 6:30 pm – 8:00pm
Meeting type:
Agricultural sector Farmers and Growers Events
MfE/MPI staff:
MPI: Fleur Francois; Claudia Gonnelli; Mele Tabukovu; Tim Knox.
MfE: David Mead; Hamish Slack; Hannah Steans; Cephas Samwini.
Facilitator: Ivan Tava; Dinah Vincent
Number of attendees:
63 participants at peak. Mostly between 55 – 58
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Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Date:
Tuesday 25th October 2022 6:30 pm – 8:00pm
Demographic of attendees (if Farmers and Growers
possible, e.g. farmer, NGO,
Māori, general public):
Prompt
Stakeholder feedback
Emissions reporting
Who did attendees think should be
responsible for
reporting and paying
for
emissions?
1. Wil the calculator be the B&L one?
2. Why can’t catchment groups be a collective?
What feedback did attendees have on
3. Is there going to be any consideration given to the breeds of stock - ie low
the
thresholds set for farms to report
methane emitting breeds?
emissions?
What did attendees believe would need
to be in place to
include collectives in
the pricing scheme?
Did attendees believe farms will have
the
necessary data for reporting by
2025?
2
Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
What feedback did attendees have on
registration requirements?
Did attendees raise any concerns
about
reporting and payment timing?
Did attendees believe there are any
opportunities to improve the proposed
approach to
reporting emissions?
Question:
1. Does the government have money set aside in case we don't meet our
targets? What is the government provision for paying for shortfalls in our
emission target?
New/thorny questions asked by
attendees
[Duplicate this row as needed]
Answer:
The government has a range of targets, and the NZ NDC can be meet with
national actions or collaborative action, but we have not quantified the cost yet.
Pricing, revenue and incentive payments
3
Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
What
concerns did attendees have
Can multi use animals ie. sheep, not gain credits for producing fibre that is less
around the proposed approach to
damaging to environment than synthetic fibres?
setting levy prices?
What about species diversity including insects as part of the biodiversity of red
Did attendees offer any
improvements meat/wool farming?
to the proposed approach to
setting
levy prices?
What feedback did attendees have on
the proposed
revenue recycling
strategy?
What did attendees think about an
advisory board for revenue
recycling?
What
transitional support did
attendees say was needed?
What approaches did attendees support
for
incentivising mitigation practices
or technologies?
What
mitigation practices or
technologies did attendees think
should be
supported by an incentive
payment?
4
Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Question:
New/thorny questions asked by
attendees
Answer:
[Duplicate this row as needed]
Pricing carbon sequestration and nitrogen fertiliser
1. Has there been any consideration given to emerging technologies around
satellite measurement of vegetation and sequestration? For example, if you
could prove that shelterbelts and woodlots are maintained long-term, why
couldn't these areas be included as an offset?
What feedback did attendees have on
2. Does the interim ETS step if the farmer level system is not ready include
the proposed approach to
carbon
both feed and fertiliser or just fertiliser?
sequestration?
3. How are Riparian margins any dif erent from Shelter belts? Why are these
not included and other native plantings? It is not challenging to measure
What
barriers did attendees raise to
these through mapping technology. this is not complicated.
including new categories of
4. Wil the ETS be made more accessible and cost efficient for small areas of
sequestration in the NZ ETS?
vegetation?.
Did attendees have any
concerns
5. Wil gorse be rewarded for its sequestration value?
about bringing
on-farm vegetation into
6. Did the Government consider that the red meat sector is further
a farm-pricing system?
disadvantaged by the inability to include exotic woody vegetation, for
example shelterbelts etc. as an offset?
7. It’s the same amount of dif iculty to measure riparian planting as shelter
belts so what’s the real reason not to include it?
8. If the sector is paying for 5% of emissions, wil we only get rewarded for 5%
of sequestration?
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Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
9. There have been a few questions about the assumptions and inputs that
went into the modelling, wil these be made available to the public?
10. When wil soil carbon be recognised for the sequestration benefit it
provides?
11. Regarding sequestration, does native vegetation have to be trees that are
regenerating and does this start from 2008? Would regenerating manuka
count ?
12. Wil the ETS be made more accessible and cost efficient for small areas of
vegetation?
13. Is the Govt not trying to encourage plantings on farm (enhance
Biodiversity???). Excluding so many types of plantings wil not incentive
continued native planting.
14. Does native vegetation have to be trees regeneration and does this start
from 2008 as well, does regenerating manuka count?
Did attendees prefer
pricing nitrogen
at the farm level or at the processer
level? Why?
1. Question: Why are we putting Greenhouse gas in a silo? shouldn't we look
at the environment in a holistic approach including freshwater, biodiversity
New/thorny questions asked by
etc?
attendees
[Duplicate this row as needed]
6
Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Answer:
Future enhancements
1. p 20 of the document records that there wil be no tradeable methane units.
Did attendees prefer a
tradeable
It also makes some assumptions of how it would work if it would. Why does
methane quota? What benefits did they
it assume free allocation even though in the last bullet point it allows three
cite?
methods of allocation. Another bullet point (4) says the “farmers set the
supply and demand”. But the idea of a cap is that the initial supply is set
What concerns did attendees have
administratively - the price is then a function of the marginal abatement cost
about
tradeable methane quotas?
v the marginal cost of buying MUs. Why exactly were methane units
rejected? Where do we find that analysis behind this decision?
What concerns did attendees share
With regards to nitrogen fertiliser and nitrous oxide emissions, wil organic nitrogen
about an
interim processer-level
fertilisers be included as well as synthetic nitrogen fertilisers? For example,
levy?
composts and manure-based products.
What
alternatives to an interim
1. You have been referring to the NZ ETS-Didn't the government agree that
processer-level levy did attendees
agriculture wont go into the ETS? Isn't the backstop now the processor
share?
levy?
Question:
New/thorny questions asked by
attendees
Answer:
[Duplicate this row as needed]
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Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Impacts and support
Is there any analysis done on what emission pricing wil impact on the existing
spending power and what is done for perverse outcomes of sequestration.
How did attendees believe the system
Reduction of farmers in their uptake of mitigation activities.
would
impact them?
The is an estimated 18% reduction in revenue for S&B farmers this is not
What
support did attendees believe wil sustainable?
be needed?
there are very few mitigations for hil country sheep and beef farmers apart from
planting pine trees. What support is available for these farmers?
What impact did attendees think the
pricing scheme wil have on their
communities?
How can
rural communities be
supported?
Did attendees share specific
impacts
for Māori?
How did attendees think the
Crown
should
protect relevant
iwi and Māori
interests?
New/thorny questions asked by
Question: It seems shocking that the govt is quite happy to cripple the sheep and
attendees
beef industry and happy for the leakage to go off shore. How come the countries
that are picking up our meat growing wil have access to markets and we are told
[Duplicate this row as needed]
we will not
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Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Wil there be emission leakage?
Answer:
Implementation, verification, compliance and enforcement
Can the date of 1st Jan 2025 that is in legislation be changed by changing the
What feedback did attendees have on
legislation?
the proposed
governance structure?
1. Wil farmers get further input into the design of the system after this
What did attendees think should be
consultation?
included in the post-implementation
It seems that there is in incredible amount of emphasis put on your 2025 date - are
review in 2030?
we not better to ensure that we get this right instead of focusing on implementing
the system by 2025?
What feedback did attendees have on
the proposed approach to
monitoring
and verification?
Did attendees support a
government-
run or third-party verification system?
Why?
Who did attendees believe should
fund
the
administration of the scheme?
Did attendees have feedback on the
proposed approach to
cost-recovery?
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Al en + Clarke
Agricultural Emissions Pricing Consultation – The Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Question: NZ signed up to the Paris Accord, does this mean the government can
New/thorny questions asked by
cut food production to meet this pledge to reduce methane emissions?
attendees
[Duplicate this row as needed]
Answer:
Other/General
1. Are there any bi-lateral discussions with other countries about how they are
Did attendees have
any other
dealing with agricultural emissions?
feedback on the proposals?
1. Question: How is the system equity when farmers wil only need to pay for
only 5% and then revenue recycling. Are there any specific numbers?
New/thorny questions asked by
Can fertiliser and biogenic methane can be treated dif erently?
attendees
[Duplicate this row as needed]
Answer:
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