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<span class="h2">Forty-nine percent of New Zealand&#39;s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture.</span><span class="h2 h2"> </span>
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At the same time,&nbsp;more than 38%&nbsp;of New Zealand&#39;s merchandisable exports come from agriculture.&nbsp; New Zealand is the number one contributor to the global dairy trade and other agricultural industries such as beef, wool and sheep meat contribute eight,&nbsp;27 and 75%&nbsp;respectively, to their world marketplaces.
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The global community is committed to growing more food to feed its growing population. It&#39;s estimated that by 2050 the global population will be in excess of 9 billion people.&nbsp;To help achieve this, and its own domestic goals, New Zealand&#39;s primary industries&nbsp;have a goal to double export production by 2025. To meet these production&nbsp;output targets, emissions are expected to increase.
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However,&nbsp;New Zealand has&nbsp;committed to reducing its greenhouse gases. Recent indications are that &quot;<em>agriculture will need to limit its greenhouse gases to only 6-8 gigatonnes by 2030</em>&quot; to meet the international&nbsp;commitments around&nbsp;limiting temperature increase to less than 2 degrees&nbsp;Celsius as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The same research shows that current practices will deliver just 21-40% of required reductions.
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For New Zealand, getting the balance between increasing production and lowering emissions is critical.
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<p class="h6">
<span class="h5">How have emissions changed in recent years?</span><span class="h5">&nbsp; What&#39;s expected in the future?</span>
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New Zealand&#39;s total emissions have risen by 15% since 1990.&nbsp; Without efficiency gains on farm, emissions would have risen by more than 30%.&nbsp; With current production and emissions modelling, we need to be reducing our emissions.
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<img src="user/image/large/427/ballon%20graph.jpg" border="0" alt="ballon graph.jpg" title="ballon graph.jpg" height="212" />
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<span class="h5">What can farmers do?</span><span class="h5 h5">
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Farmers are already part of the solution. By continuing to improve farm efficiency, farmers will continue to reduce the intensity of production. <strong>Read more</strong>
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Is&nbsp;being more efficient enough to meet our commitments?
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No.&nbsp; It&#39;s an excellent start, and makes a real difference. However, New Zealand needs practical, cost-effective tools to help achieve our economic growth targets, environmental, social and international aspirations and obligations.
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While the most simple solution would be to reduce agricultural production or forego growth targets, that&#39;s not in the farming sector&#39;s not the nation&#39;s best interests.  The goal is to enable the sector to reduce absolute emissions without sacrificing production gains.&nbsp;
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What are these solutions?
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New Zealand&#39;s research into reducing livestock greenhouse gas emissions (methane, nitrous oxide) and increasing our soil carbon sinks to absorb emissions concentrates on six solutions. <strong>Read more</strong>
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