Massive New Opportunities For Business And Farmers From Emissions Trading
August 27th, 2008
• NZ poised to make “billions.”
• Bio-fuel potential from forest waste.
• Carbon could be sequestered in soil.
A new report says NZ businesses and farmers could potentially make billions of dollars from new opportunities created by the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme. The report, by Sam Tobin of NRS Consulting for the Tindall Foundation, suggests a Fonterra-like forestry co-operative could be established to export bio-mass (such as wood chips) to fuel major overseas power plants. For example, it notes a proposed 350MW bio-mass plant in Wales will import 3m tonnes of bio-mass fuel annually from the US and Canada. The report says the new bio-mass industry offers “significant opportunities for forestry groups and all organisations and individuals in that supply chain.” It also suggests it is theoretically possible for NZ to be self-sufficient in liquid fuel producing bio-fuels from sustainably managed forests.
Another big opportunity for NZ is growing trees to sequester carbon. This could particularly help farmers to offset emissions from livestock. The report notes one large North Island farm with 3000 cattle and 27,000 sheep is planting 500ha of Kyoto forest. This will sequester almost 14,900 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, slightly more than the farm’s total emissions, making it carbon-neutral. There is also an opportunity for farmers to sequester carbon in their soils, using grass roots and microbes in the soil to store carbon. The report estimates this could deliver 8000 tonnes of CO2 reduction annually for an average farm, not only making the farm carbon neutral but also generating emission credit sales revenue.
The report notes grassland farming has 12.7m ha under productive management in NZ, producing just over 94,000 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. All of this could be sequestered if organic soil sequestration increased the carbon level in the top 10cm of the soil by only 0.17%. The report also sees huge potential for NZ farmers to generate electricity from cow manure methane. It notes an 850-cow farm is already saving up to $37,000 a year in electricity by generating it this way. Other opportunities include significant investment in wind, geothermal, hydro and ocean power generation, leading to new jobs; accelerated use of smart meters on buildings by power generators to avoid costs of generation and emissions; and specialist software allowing businesses to measure emissions and track their food miles and supply chain security issues.
In the banking sector, the report sees opportunities for innovations such as green credit cards and a stronger market for green housing. There will also be opportunities to trade through the new TZ1 bourse, operating for a time as the only one in an all-gases, all-sectors Kyoto-linked ETS; and new carbon management, ETS and trading skills will allow NZers to sell their expertise overseas. The report was released last week at the NZ Council for Sustainable Development’s “Clean Billions” CEO Breakfast in Auckland. It is available at www.nzbcsd.org
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