NZ to host first Global Research Alliance meeting

The Government today released details of an ambitious international plan to produce more food with fewer emissions.

International Climate Change Negotiations Minister Tim Groser and Agriculture Minister David Carter are to host the inaugural meeting of the Global Research Alliance in Wellington next week (April 7-9).

More than 80 senior science and policy representatives from participating nations will attend the meeting and the Ministers say all participants are committed to making swift progress.

Mr Groser says the overarching ambition for members of the Global Research Alliance is to find ways to produce more food with fewer emissions.

“We want to increase international cooperation, collaboration and investment in both public and private research activities to help us in achieving that goal - reducing agricultural emissions while meeting the food production demands of a growing world population.

“While the focus for this meeting is on the Alliance’s shape and design, we also expect to make significant progress on establishing how we get the research underway.

“By the end of this meeting we hope to have established working groups, developed a process for conducting a stocktake of existing research, and discussed priority setting and opportunities for encouraging wider participation.”

Mr Carter says the Government is committing serious money to the challenge of reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions while increasing productivity.

“The reality is that globally, there is very little research focused on agricultural greenhouse gases compared to other sectors such as energy and transport.

“The New Zealand Government has made a significant effort to change that with investment in the Global Research Alliance, the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Footprinting Strategy for the primary sectors and the inclusion of agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

“Agriculture plays a vital role in food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development.

“However, the sector is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and faces significant challenges in meeting an increase in global food demand while reducing its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Carter says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media