What the ETS means for farmers & landowners
Brochure
How you can lower your energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Emissions Trading Scheme provides opportunities for farmers and landowners through tree planting as well as placing costs on greenhouse gas emissions.
Both agriculture and forestry are included in the ETS, but most farmers and landowners will not participate directly in the scheme.
Forestry entered the ETS in 2008 to encourage tree planting because trees store carbon. The agriculture sector produces 48% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and participants from the sector have to report their emissions from 1 January 2012 and fully enter the scheme in 2015. For information on participating in the ETS see Agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Farmers and other landowners can also choose to participate directly in the ETS and earn emission units for planting trees. See Forestry in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Potential price increases
The major short-term effect of the ETS will be an increase in energy and fuel costs when the transport, energy and industrial sectors enter the scheme from 1 July 2010 and pass on costs to consumers. It is estimated that the ETS will add approximately 3 cents per litre to the cost of petrol and diesel and 1 cent per kWh or 5% to the cost of electricity. There may also be secondary effects, such as increases in the prices of some goods as a result of increased freight charges.
Reducing your costs
The key thing you can do to reduce your costs, and emissions, is to reduce your energy and transport use.
Some things take little effort or investment, such as turning off equipment when not in use or planning trips and improving driving habits. Others take more investment and effort but have larger potential benefits, for example improving building insulation, using solar water heating, irrigating more efficiently or installing heat recovery units and variable speed drives on dairy farms.
Useful advice
EECA Business provides information, resources and support for farmers and landowners to become more energy-efficient and use more renewable energy. For example read how other farmers have reduced their energy use and increased their use of renewable energy on farm.
Fuel$aver is a useful website that provides information to compare the fuel consumption of different vehicle models. The website enables drivers to calculate vehicle fuel costs by considering their vehicle model, the distance travelled, the kind of fuel that is used, and their driving habits.
Specific information about reducing dairy farm energy use is here.
For information on more effective fertiliser use and FRMA.
What assistance is available to farmers and landowners?
Like other homeowners, you may be eligible for help through the Government’s $323m insulation and clean heating fund for households at Energywise.
The Sustainable Farming Fund operated by MAF invests up to $9million a year in farmer, grower and forester-led projects that deliver economic, environmental and social benefits to New Zealand’s primary industries. It includes funding for specific projects that focus on climate change.
Planting trees
The ETS provides opportunities to farmers and landowners, for example through planting trees on marginal farm land. To be eligible to earn emission units, the forest needs to be a minimum of 1 hectare, planted after 31 December 1989 with a forest species capable of growing to five metres plus. For more information go to Forestry in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Other information about the ETS or climate change
Find out more about the science behind climate change and physical impacts and adaptation.
Last updated: 16 December 2011
