Fonterra welcomes climate change developments

27 June 2007

Fonterra welcomes climate change developments

"Fonterra is serious about tackling climate change and welcomes any research or development that has the potential to reduce on-farm carbon emissions," says Barry Harris, Chairman of Fonterra's Sustainability Council.

Mr Harris was commenting on claims made in a recent Sustainability Council of New Zealand report that the use of nitrification inhibitors by dairy farmers could see the agriculture sector meet its share of the country's targeted Kyoto emissions reductions.

"As New Zealand's leading food producer we're taking climate change seriously and making a big effort to educate and inform our farmers about the issue and how they can reduce their emissions."

Mr Harris says Fonterra is active in raising farmer awareness about ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as following a nutrient budget, using nitrification inhibitors and making energy savings on-farm.

"We welcome the development of new technologies like nitrification inhibitors that help reduce emissions. But it is too simplistic to say a single, silver bullet answer will reduce our on-farm carbon emissions, as this is likely to evolve over time."

Trials of nitrification inhibitors have shown around 30-70 per cent reductions in nitrous oxide production and also accompanying pasture productivity increases of up to 15 per cent. However, there are some outstanding questions about their potential in different soil types and conditions.

"Despite this, nitrification inhibitors do have real potential and also produce extra benefits with improving water quality."

Mr Harris says New Zealand has the potential to be a world leader in development of agricultural emissions mitigation technology and Fonterra will continue to contribute financially to this research.

"There are also opportunities for any breakthrough research in reducing methane emissions to have the potential to be sold overseas.

"We believe measures that encourage behavioural change in farmers, such as incentives to encourage the uptake of nitrification inhibitors will be more effective than punitive penalties such as fertiliser taxes."

Mr Harris says Fonterra is also making significant investment in climate change research, particularly through its involvement in the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium - the pan-agriculture industry body which is trying to find answers to reducing agricultural greenhouse gases.

More than $15 million is currently being spent on this research and most of it coming from the dairy sector. Fonterra also invests separately in areas like research into pastoral genomics, which aims to increase pasture digestibility and reduce animal emissions.

"We have also made major gains in cutting the carbon dioxide emissions from our manufacturing sites - these have been reduced by 28 per cent per tonne of product since 1990. During the 2005-06 year, Fonterra accounted for 82 per cent of all energy savings made by New Zealand businesses.

"Climate change affects every sector of the economy - including agriculture - and Fonterra is playing a leading role in tackling the issue and working with Government and other pastoral industries to find practical solutions," Mr Harris said.

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