The pork industry has welcomed the proposal to exclude pig farming from emissions (tukuwaro) pricing.
As part of its response to the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) primary sector climate action partnership proposal on the pricing of agricultural emissions, the government (karauna) not to price pig farming emissions from 2025.
NZPork chief executive Brent Kleiss said the decision is sensible given greenhouse gas emissions from pig farming account for 0.2% of agricultural emissions in New Zealand every year.
This is because of the small size of the industry and the fact that emissions from pig farming differ significantly to emissions from pastoral farming because pigs are monogastric, so they naturally produce much lower methane emissions than ruminant animals.
“NZPork has been advocating on this issue for some time so we’re pleased with this pragmatic and sensible decision,” Kleiss said.
“The government has acknowledged that there would be too much uncertainty about the price pig farmers would face and there are limited emissions-reduction practices for some pig-farming systems.
“Adapting a system designed for the dairy, sheep and beef sectors to be fit-for-purpose for pig farming would also have been complex,” he said.
He said many pig farmers have already adopted emissions-reducing technologies and practices, including significantly reducing methane emissions by covering effluent ponds.
Ongoing improvements in production efficiencies continue to reduce the sector’s environmental impact over time.
“Nevertheless, we remain focused on our goal to achieve carbon neutrality for commercial pig farms by 2050 and to support long-term emissions reductions across the pork supply chain.”
NZPork’s climate change strategy is focused on being able to measure current emissions, identify and provide support for emissions reductions, support farmers (pāmu) to use carbon credits to offset residual emissions and respond to the impacts of climate change.
“We want to develop a sound understanding of emission sources and sequestration opportunities on farm and across the wider pork supply chain.
“It’s also vital we have confidence in the accuracy of emissions-reporting measurements at both the farm and national scale.”
NZPork has commissioned a pork carbon footprint assessment to quantify emissions across the pork supply chain and will be working with farmers to support their understanding and benchmark emissions sources on their own farms.
