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       ETS exemption: Farmers warned customers' 'voices getting louder' for
       action
        
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       While the government has removed agriculture from the ETS and axed a
       group working to price on farm emissions global customers still want
       products with a lower footprint, Rabobank says.  Photo: 123rf
        
       Farmers have been told if they snooze when it comes to reducing
       emissions they'll lose.
        
       Rabobank chief executive Todd Charteris made the comments at the
       Primary Industries Summit in Wellington on Tuesday morning.
        
       The rural lender has just released a new paper titled _Maintaining Our
       Emissions Edge,_ aimed at helping New Zealand's 50,000 farmers and the
       wider agri-sector with the transition to producing more food with a
       smaller emissions footprint.
        
       Charteris said while the government has removed agriculture from the
       Emissions Trading Scheme and got rid of the group working to price on
       farm emissions global customers still want products with a lower
       footprint.
        
       Todd Charteris  Photo: Supplied
        
       "There are voices at the table that are getting louder. These are the
       voices of customers, the increasing expectations of the world's most
       powerful food processing and marketing companies, and voices from the
       wider supply chain, including investors, who also face significant
       regulatory pressure to minimise scope three emissions.
        
       "A review by Chapman Tripp found that over 80 percent of New Zealand's
       exports are headed to countries with mandatory climate related
       disclosures that are either in force or on the way."
        
       Charteris said on top of this, free trade agreements were increasingly
       loaded with enforceable obligations on emissions and other
       sustainability targets.
        
       "When it comes to sustainability, it's way too early to hit the La-Z-
       Boy, if we snooze, we lose."
        
       Charteris said the sector has been given a regulatory breather but it
       needs to use that wisely.
        
       "At face value, New Zealand's 50,000 farmers and many in the wider
       food and agricultural sector now have an expanded window of
       opportunity to transition their businesses to a lower carbon future.
        
       "However, it would be unwise for farmers and the government to just
       bank this time during this respite, and instead we need to prepare for
       the journey ahead to reduce emissions from New Zealand agriculture."
        
       He said the country needed to create a national on-farm emissions
       measurement tool as there were currently too many calculators and
       groups working on the same thing.
        
       Farmers who were working to reduce emissions needed to be rewarded
       with incentives and price premiums.
        
       "We need a benchmark of what good practice and sustainable emissions
       look like."
        
        
        
        
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