Red Meat Farmers Support Labour's Plan to Keep Agriculture Out of ETS Pricing

Beef + Lamb New Zealand has welcomed Labour's climate policy announcement, which includes a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme and a commitment not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions. The party also plans to pause new forestry registrations while developing rules to prevent whole-farm conversions, aiming to stop the loss of productive sheep and beef land to carbon forestry. B+LNZ chair Kate Acland said the signals align with international practice, noting that no other country prices agricultural emissions through an ETS. Farmers want assurances that this position will hold in coalition negotiations, as potential partners have previously supported agricultural emissions pricing. The article also highlights concerns that heavy tree planting has depressed ETS prices without driving real emissions reductions.