Carbon farming
The Government urgently needs to curb the out-of-control conversion of sheep and beef farms into carbon farms.
We are not anti-forestry and many of our farmers already have trees on their farms and are planting more.
The issue is being driven by the carbon market.
As the carbon price increases, more and more productive farms are being sold and converted into carbon farms so fossil fuel emitters can offset their emissions rather than reduce them in the first place.
In 2017, 7,000 hectares of farmland was sold into forestry. In 2021, this soared to 52,000 hectares.
The scale and pace of this change is hollowing out rural communities, with many small businesses like vets, shearers and garages closing down.
New Zealand is an outlier internationally by allowing 100 percent offsetting within its regulatory carbon market. The EU and US only allow about 10 percent of emissions to be offset.
The Climate Change Commission (CCC) and environmental NGOs all agree, and in one of its most recent reports, the CCC urged the Government to urgently introduce limits on forestry offsets, otherwise too much exotic forestry will be planted.
Unfortunately, the Government isn’t listening.
It recently stepped back from a proposal that would have removed exotic trees from the permanent category of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Urgent action is needed now, before too much conversion happens which cannot be reversed.
We want the Government to introduce limits on the amount of forestry that can be offset in the ETS and commit to fixing this problem before any price on agricultural emissions is imposed.
To help us continue to fight on this, please also visit 50ShadesofGreen