He Waka Eke Noa

New Zealand's agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not currently priced in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). 

He Waka Eke Noa is a partnership between industry, Māori and Government to develop a practical framework to measure, manage and reduce agricultural GHG emissions. The design considerations include a better approach to recognising on-farm sequestration, other potential mitigations, and pricing agricultural emissions from 2025 onwards.

Partner organisations include Apiculture NZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, DCANZ, Deer Industry NZ, Federation of Māori Authorities, Federated Farmers of New Zealand, Foundation for Arable Research, Horticulture New Zealand, Irrigation NZ, Meat Industry Association, Ministry for Primary Industries and Ministry for the Environment.

The partnership is working towards a series of milestones written into law (see He Waka Eke Noa milestones below).

He Waka Eke Noa is focused on agricultural GHG emissions. These include:

• Nitrous oxide from synthetic nitrogenous fertilisers
• Methane and nitrous oxide from animals

To learn more about these emissions, visit the AgMatters website.

He Waka Eke Noa does not cover:

• Other on-farm emissions from sources like fuel and electricity
• Organic nitrogen fertilisers like compost and manures

Visit the He Waka Eke Noa FAQs for more info.

The following milestones relating to the measurement, management, reporting and pricing of agricultural GHG emissions are written into legislation, in the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Act 2020. He Waka Eke Noa is working towards these milestones.

Farm emissions reporting milestones:

  1. For 25% of farms in New Zealand, a person responsible for farm management holds a documented annual total of on-farm greenhouse gas emissions, by methods and definitions accepted by the He Waka Eke Noa Steering group, by 31 December 2021. (achieved)

  2. For all farms in New Zealand, a person responsible for farm management holds a documented annual total of on-farm greenhouse gas emissions, by methods and definitions accepted by the He Waka Eke Noa Steering group, by 31 December 2022.

  3. A pilot of a farm-level accounting and reporting system has been completed by 1 January 2024 across a range of farm types.

  4. A system for farm-level accounting and reporting of 2024 agricultural greenhouse gas emissions at farm level is in use by all farms by 1 January 2025.

Farm plan milestones:

  5. Guidance is provided to farmers on how to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions through farm planning by 1 January 2021. (achieved)

  6. A quarter of farms have a written plan in place to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions by 1 January 2022.

  7. All farms have a written plan in place to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions by 1 January 2025.

The Government may decide to pull agricultural GHG emissions in the ETS earlier than 2025 if the partnership is not making adequate progress towards these milestones.

He Waka Eke Noa has approved several tools that growers and farmers can use to calculate their emissions.

To meet Milestone 2, by 31 December 2022, all farms (enterprises over 80 hectares) need to know their total annual emissions number.

HortNZ will contact those affected growers to step them through the process.  Growers can calculate their emissions using the HortNZ approved spreadsheet. Download the spreadsheet here.

If you have animals on your farm, you will need to consider emissions from animals. The FAR emissions tool is simple to use and can be found here.

To meet Milestone 6, by 1 January 2022, a quarter of farms (enterprises over 80 hectares) need a farm plan to manage their emissions. This milestone has been achieved through existing plans.

He Waka Eke Noa has provided conditional approved several existing industry farm plans, including GLOBALG.A.P. and NZGAP checklists, as meeting the requirements for Milestone 6. 

The GAP schemes are working on improvements to their checklists to gain final approval. The fully approved version of GAP will be in place for Milestone 7 in 2025.

If you are a grower with over 80 hectares, you may be contacted by HortNZ to assist you with your emissions calculation. This is part of our industry’s efforts to meet Milestones 2 and 7.

In future, the 80 hectare threshold may change as part of the preferred pricing system design.