Mark Cameron’s member’s bill that would prevent regional and district councils from regulating greenhouse gas emissions is a smart step for climate change policy, Federated Farmers say.

"Greenhouse gas emissions are a global rather than local challenge. It has never made sense for local councils to individually regulate greenhouse gas emissions," the organisation’s RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper says.

"On top of this, New Zealand has a number of national policies regulating greenhouse gas emissions, meaning any local policy duplicates what central government is already doing."

Hooper says Mark Cameron’s Amendment Bill will largely reinstate changes made in 2004 that were then repealed in 2020 by the previous Government.

"Having regional councils regulate greenhouse gas emissions has the potential to create huge headaches for farmers," Hooper says.

"Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) has proposed a target of a 50% reduction in all greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, including biogenic methane.

"This diverges from the central Government targets that treat short-lived biogenic methane differently to long-lived carbon dioxide."

"For Wairarapa farmers, who sit inside the GWRC’s boundaries, this means a resource consent application could set conditions that require farmers to reduce emissions in line with the 50% target.

"It raises questions for all resource consent applications. For example, could a new road or house fail a resource consent application if it wasn’t viewed as consistent with a 50% reduction?"

Hooper says none of this makes any sense when carbon dioxide emissions are already captured under the ETS.

"Preventing activities that emit carbon dioxide in Wellington will simply mean more of the ETS cap is available for other regions.

"While agricultural emissions aren’t in the ETS, this is for good reason. Economic modelling has shown it would reduce sheep and beef production by over 20% by 2030, for a much less ambitious target.

"With 39% of the Wellington region’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from agriculture, achieving a 50% reduction in regional emissions in just over five years’ time could mean huge conversion of farmland to forestry.

GWRC is "flying blind", having done no analysis of land use change to understand this, Hooper says.

"Wellington is just the first example of where this can go.

"Act MP Mark Cameron’s bill is sensible policy that reinstates law that was supported by both the Clark and Key governments for 16 years.

"I encourage all political parties to once again support this sensible law change."

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