National’s Climate Change spokesperson Todd Muller told Q+A he has “total confidence” that technology will be developed to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“To simply take the New Zealand agriculture sector which is the most emissions efficient food producing sector in the world and say that the future for that sector is to tax it before you’ve got an opportunity to apply technology that hasn’t appeared yet I think is a nonsense.

“You first of all measure, then you can manage, you apply innovation then you can change.”

Mr Muller said that agriculture should not be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

“That particular proposal looks to sheet that cost back to the sector at a manufacturing level and the Interim Climate Committee itself said that if you actually wanted to drive change in an agricultural context you price emissions on farm but that can’t be done at the moment.

Farmers don’t have the tools to be able to effectively measure their on-farm emissions, they don’t have any tools to mitigate or reduce those on farm emissions and as you heard in the previous segment the Prime Minister has said that there is no other country in the world that looks to its food production sector as an opportunity to tax.”

On the Zero Carbon Bill Mr Muller says, he supports an Independent Commission but the methane targets are too onerous.

Please find the full interview here.

Q+A, 9:30pm Mondays on TVNZ 1 and one hour later on TVNZ 1 + 1.
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