How Can Agriculture be Included in an Emissions Trading Scheme? Some Thoughts from New Zealand

Why is New Zealand considering including agriculture in it's emissions trading scheme? The answer for this question is that for New Zealand, it's pretty much a no brainer. Agriculture is the source of nearly half of the nation's emissions so if we want to contribute to global mitigation and if we want to cost effectively comply with our Kyoto agreement we really have to include the sector. That reality is something we're going to have to deal with at least in the long term if not in the short term.

In my talk today I'll just start with a very broad overview of emissions trading just to make sure we're all on the same track and then I'll talk about some of the specific challenges in New Zealand nad some ideas about how these might be addressed.