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NZ farmers 'shouldn't pay for emissions if other countries aren't' (www.stuff.co.nz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s the right thing to do to maintain the support of the export markets we want to sell to in Britain and the UK. Especially the latter there’s already a big lobby against NZ meat, and if they get to a point where they can empirically show emissions per kg are way worse then we will lose access to the market.

The UK supermarket chains will pull the strings, exactly how egg production in NZ has changed to meet the domestic market expectations led by supermarket buying power. Farmers can’t ignore it, no matter how unfair it may or may not be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

if they get to a point where they can empirically show emissions per kg are way worse then we will lose access to the market

This is a key concern for me. NZ's comparative contribution to carbon emissions between countries doesn't matter much if our trading options become more limited due to current and potential trading partners considering the emissions we produce.

It doesn't necessarily even matter if we're the most efficient producers of those products. We also need to be conscious of possibilities where NZ's primary exports that we rely on so much, like meat and milk, might simply be undermined by more carbon efficient synthetic alternatives as they improve.