The government cut funding for the Agrigas project, which was touted as a solution to the agrigas problem.

Funding for a research program to help farmers reduce agricultural emissions has been cut by $48 million, a letter from the Treasury Department shows.

In June, climate change minister Simon Watts announced that a legal amendment to exclude agriculture from the Emissions Trading System (ETS) had passed its first reading. Committed more than $400 million to establish a fund to “accelerate the commercialization of tools and technologies to reduce farm emissions”.

But while one program within the fund received more money, the overall size of the fund shrunk.

Treasury’s responses to the Greens under the Official Information Act show the fund was cut twice after it was established in 2022: first by $30 million in August 2023 by the previous Labor government, and again in this year’s budget when the current government cut it by a further $48 million.

The fund currently has a size of $419 million.

In June, the government issued a Government to exclude agriculture from New Zealand’s emissions pricing scheme – Election promises made by alliance members to farmers.

The government has been Farmers criticised for decision to defer part of heating gas bills.

Dairy, beef and lamb produce nearly half of the country’s emissions, including methane and nitrous oxide, but producers do not pay for those emissions like carbon dioxide emitters from cars and factories.

Farmers believe that compared to these industries, they do not have enough climate-friendly technologies to address the impacts of heating.

last week Climate Change Minister Simon Watts told RNZ’s Eye on Politics the government was taking a “technology-led approach” to tackling agricultural emissions. Solutions will come from innovation.

“We have invested additional money into research and development and innovation,” he said.

However, the current government has increased the funds allocated to one of the fund’s projects.

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre in Palmerston North had received an additional $50.5 million over five years, bringing its total funding to $149 million over five years.

The center is home to some of the most high-profile agro-climate science—finding, for example, A vaccine that can be given to cows to inhibit methane.

‘Additional’ or ‘further’ funding?

Research shows that agricultural gas emissions could be lowered through techniques such as more precise use of fertilizers and different combinations of animal feeds.

Market-driven shifts to raising less sheep and beef, farming marginal land, and raising more efficient and productive dairy cows have also reduced emissions across agricultural sectors.

but The government hopes to achieve a substantial double-digit growth Breakthroughs are needed, such as methane vaccines for dairy cows or methane-reducing feed additives for herbivores.

Watts recently told reporters that if “even one of those things happens”, New Zealand’s future prospects of meeting its emissions budget would look much brighter.

The $400 million fund is the latest in more than a decade of government funding to find and promote methods and tools to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions from animals, such as successfully breeding low-methane sheep and growing more diverse crops.

Watts used the investment in research and innovation to sidestep questions about delaying emissions pricing, a move government forecasts show will make it harder for New Zealand to meet long-term climate goals unless other sectors take more action. The government says putting a price on emissions now will reduce agricultural production and drive production overseas – so the answer is to find new technologies first.

In a press release in June this year, the New Zealand government said it would remove agriculture from New Zealand’s emissions pricing scheme and said the government would “further invest in research and development to develop practical tools to help reduce farm emissions while protecting production.”

Watts once said release “The government has committed $400 million over the next four years to accelerate the commercialisation of tools and technologies to reduce farm emissions,” he said.

“As part of our commitment to the sector, we are increasing funding for the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, investing an extra $50.5 million over the next five years in projects that find solutions to reduce emissions from the sector,” he said.

The Treasury letter confirmed the $400 million pool of funding referred to was for the “Accelerated New Mitigation Programme”, which includes the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

RNZ asked Watts:

• What does he mean by “further” funding, is the additional $50.5 million additional?
• Responding to Green Party criticism: While the government has emphasised funding for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions reductions when asked about the impact of delaying agricultural emissions pricing, funding for this research was originally established by Labor and was actually cut in this year’s budget.

Watts’ office referred questions to Agriculture Secretary Todd McCray.

Both ministers are abroad this week.

McRae’s office responded: “The government is increasing funding for NZAGRC by an additional $50.5 million over the next five years, on top of the current $15.7 million per year.”

The company later clarified that the newly allocated funds were reallocated from within the $400 million fund.

“Mathematics is not mathematics”

Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said the government’s claims were “just not maths”.

“It’s clear that the fund of about $400 million that the government keeps waving around… is actually money that was promised by the previous government for 2022, and what’s worse is that this is the fund that they are cutting funding from.”

“It makes sense to invest in research, innovation and development. We always support more research in the field of climate change,” she said.

“But we also have to realize that we are grappling with the difficult scientific underpinnings of life on Earth as we know it, and we have to follow the methods we know work.”

“We’ve been arguing about pricing in agriculture for two decades.”