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New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre opened
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Increasing agriculture&#8217;s ability to create wealth for New Zealand in a carbon constrained world, is the mission of the Government&#8217;s New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre opened today by the Prime Minister John Key in Palmerston North at AgResearch&#8217;s Grasslands campus.
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The Centre is a partnership between AgResearch, Dairy NZ, Landcare Research, Lincoln University, Massey University, NIWA, Plant &#38; Food Research, the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc), and Scion.
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Centre Director Dr Harry Clark welcomed the opening of the facility. &#8216;&#8220;The Centre will lead and co-ordinate research to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and to increase the rates of soil carbon accumulation. This research will underpin the development of novel, credible and cost-effective low greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting production systems that provide farmers with practical options for reducing emissions,&#8221; said Dr Clark.
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The Centre will also play a key role in New Zealand&#8217;s science input into the world-wide initiative, the Global Research Alliance (GRA), announced in Copenhagen last year.
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&#8220;The Centre coordinates research and brings together key scientists from up and down New Zealand as they work on one of the biggest challenges of our time,&#8221; said Dr Clark.
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&#8220;While agriculture creates about half of New Zealand&#8217;s GHG emissions, it also generates around 44 per cent of New Zealand&#8217;s merchandise export earnings and so is a critical contributor to New Zealand&#8217;s livelihood. The challenge is for the Centre to find ways for New Zealand to meet its international GHG emission obligations without reducing agricultural output.&#8221;<br />
The Centre will:<br />
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	<li>Manage projects which are directly contracted through the Centre.</li>
	<li>Undertake appropriate co-ordination of activities both within New Zealand and internationally.</li>
	<li>Manage reporting of progress against strategy and communications both within New Zealand and internationally.</li>
	<li>Coordinate ongoing development of a national research strategy in the area.</li>
	<li>Actively engage in the promotion, and widespread adoption of proven cost effective technologies.</li>
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Research projects will be undertaken around the country, with details of the projects supported and coordinated by the Centre to be announced in April 2010.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold">For further information contact:</span><br />
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Dr Harry Clark<br />
P: 029 351-8111
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<span class="mix_file"><a href="user/file/63/Broad_science_partnership_to_tackle_New_Zealands_agricultural_greenhouse_gases.pdf" title="Broad science partnership to tackle New Zealand&#8217;s agricultural greenhouse gases"><img src="images/icons/icon_pdf.gif" border="0" alt="pdf" vspace="1" width="16" height="16" align="absmiddle" /> Broad science partnership to tackle New...</a> <span style="font-size: 80%">(0.42MB)</span></span>&#160; <br />
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