The legacy we hand on to future generations

Scientists, farmers and policy makers together meeting the challenges of climate change.


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Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network (LEARN) conference, Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch

It's a pleasure to welcome international visitors who are with us for this event. I believe there are representatives here from 27 countries. I want to welcome you with a firm commitment from me as New Zealand's Agriculture Minister that New Zealand takes the issues of livestock emissions very seriously.

I know you have spent a lot of time this week hearing about the substantial size of our agricultural sector, and therefore the contribution livestock emissions make to our overall emissions.

So you know the seriousness of the climate problem we face. Let me tell you why I think governments need to take climate change seriously, and why I am motivated to do something about it.

Obviously the issue is about the future of the planet. It is about the legacy we hand on to our children and to generations not yet born.

And it goes even deeper than that. I have a saying that we should let the facts get in the way of our prejudices. What I mean by that is that we should make decisions on the basis of evidence. We should examine the facts when we can.

If you ignore facts, then you are not interested in making a better world. 'Better' implies measurement, so that you can tell better from what it replaces. It requires knowledge. If facts don't matter then there is no such thing as knowledge − and that is the same as saying that everything is as good as everything else. If facts don't matter, you might as well sit in a cave, because that is as good as anything else.

So facts obviously matter. Knowledge matters. And therefore science matters. The real issue that often faces governments when we come to make decisions is that we have to act before we have all the facts. If we wait until all the evidence is in, it might be too late to act.

This is not rare. It happens more often that not.

When we don't know everything, it is even more important to listen to scientists, to understand their view of the evidence and to listen to their advice about what is likely to happen. Science matters when we make decisions.
I'll give you a very recent example. I am Minister of Fisheries among my ministerial responsibilities. One of my jobs as Fisheries Minister is to make a decision about the volume of fish that can be taken − different limits are set for different species in different areas.

Recently I had to make a decision about a species called orange roughy. No one knows for sure how many orange roughy are in the sea or how long they take to rebuild stocks. When I came to make a decision, I saw the stocks were estimated to have declined substantially − but that scientists estimated there would be a recovery. I called in the scientists and asked them why the model always seemed to show a recovery ahead, but stocks always seem to go down. They acknowledged that the science needed another look. In the meantime, we must act prudently, in other words 'cautiously', in order to protect stocks.

The alternative would be to ignore science altogether. And then what we are saying is that the basis for making decisions is that we just want to grab as much fish as we possibly can.

The point of the story is that we should listen carefully to science and make decisions on the best facts we have available. This is true also of climate change. On the best facts we have available, we have to reduce our emissions globally.

But our problem is that, when it comes to livestock emissions, no one has effective solutions at the moment. We need science to find solutions to reducing emissions from livestock. As we've heard this week, a relatively small number of countries are affected, so it makes sense for us to co-operate. This is a crucial issue for New Zealand.

This week I held a major conference in Christchurch of the leaders of all our primary sectors. We were looking at what we could do to increase our exports to the world. And one of the consistent themes that came through was the need for our products to be seen by consumers in our markets as environmentally responsible.

So reducing emissions is a commercial imperative. As agricultural producers, we have to respond to changing consumer demand. Markets might not differentiate between responsible emitters and those who do nothing − they might just insist on blunt responses that turn away from our products. They might insist on regulatory responses that ban our products or limit them severely. We can only respond with facts.

And as agricultural producers we are exposed because of the effect climate has on our main product. Climate change will bring more extreme weather. That is a threat to our producers.

It's also a matter of doing our bit as good global citizens. We in New Zealand know that we cannot affect global climate acting alone. But if every country plays its part, we can make the world of difference.

Just this week the UN released a report that says helping poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change will cost rich countries at least US$86 billion. That's the cost of helping them respond to more floods, droughts and other changes from a warming planet, according to the UN Development Programme. If we don't invest the money, however, we could stall and reverse the world's development.

If we stop emitting greenhouse gases then we will stop causing climate change. And that is a better response still.

So New Zealand is very keen to join with nations at this conference, and by inviting you here to promote discussion. This is a starting point, and only through the collaboration and partnership of many people can we hope to find solutions.

We're committed to doing our bit. In the government's Budget this year we allocated a million dollars to engage internationally on research into agricultural and forestry emissions, and another $175 million to work on climate change issues over the next 4-5 years.

This event is part of that commitment. It's a symbol of the commitment we are making to work in partnership with like countries to find solutions to the challenge of climate change.

We've shown our commitment in other ways, too. New Zealand has introduced a cap on carbon emissions and an emissions trading scheme, and we will bring our primary sectors into it from 2013.

We have invested $175 million in a sustainable land management and climate change plan of action. It includes a range of programmes to help the land-based sectors cope with climate change and explore business opportunities. Research and technology transfer are critical components of this. The Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium, which is a government and industry partnership, has increased its annual investment in mitigation research by $1.2 million. It now spends five million dollars every year.

New Zealand has a world-leading research programme. We want to work with other countries to increase the collective global effort on research related to livestock agriculture. We want to work with others to reduce livestock greenhouse gas emissions. The Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network is an important first step.

We've given some thought to the Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network (LEARN) already. The purpose of today's meeting is to share our thinking with you all and to give you all the opportunity to shape the future direction of LEARN.
New Zealand believes that developing a greater understanding between scientists, the farming community, and policy makers is necessary to meet the challenges of climate change.

We see LEARN as an 'enabling' network, one that will focus on information sharing and will facilitate face to face contact between researchers around the world. Research should be a strong focus but there may also be scope to evolve the network to provide industry and policy partnership opportunities.

I urge you to be courageous and innovative in searching for scientific solutions to emissions from livestock. We like to think of ourselves as an innovative people here in New Zealand. It's because we are a small country and very isolated from the rest of the world. We have also had the freedom to think through problems in our own way. That's been good for our science. Lord Rutherford, a New Zealander who won the Nobel Prize, was asked why New Zealanders are innovators. He said, 'we don't have much money, so we have to think."

I hope his advice is an inspiration to everyone here. We have a unique opportunity for everyone involved in this issue to engage and play their part in stopping climate change. Everyone benefits, because the consequences are catastrophic for all of us if we're not successful.

I therefore wish you every success. You have a lot to discuss. I look forward with interest to seeing the outcomes of today's meeting. And I hope you have enjoyed your time in New Zealand. I look forward to seeing you here again.