Farmers could be ready for ‘basic’ emissions pricing by 1 January 2025

Agricultural emissions should be priced at the farm-level outside the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission Chair Dr Rod Carr says.

Minister of Climate Change James Shaw has released advice from the Commission assessing how ready farmers and the broader agriculture sector are for emissions pricing.

You can access the report here.

By the end of 2022, the Government will need to report on what an alternative pricing system for pricing agricultural emissions outside the NZ ETS looks like.

In the advice, the Commission has recommended that a basic farm-level emissions pricing system be introduced as soon as possible to lay foundations, which need to be rapidly developed into a more responsive and effective policy.

Alongside the He Waka Eke Noa partnership’s proposals and the Commission’s advice on whether and how financial assistance could be provided to farmers in a pricing system, this advice will feed into Ministers’ decision on how to price agricultural emissions.