Science Sidelined by Panel
"The Methane Review Panel have strayed from science and been swept up in politics to justify continuing the methane money train" states Jane Smith, Chair of the Methane Science Accord regarding today's announcement by a Crown-appointed Review Panel to recommend continued methane reduction regulation targets for New Zealand ruminants.
"It is hugely disappointing that the panel process has been clearly nothing more than a desktop exercise, they have ignored their terms of reference where they were asked to quantify the actual warming impact of methane. Despite their early indication that any reduction target was nonsensical due to the downwards trajectory of New Zealand's livestock methane emissions and the very simple science behind methane levels at steady-state or below, they have instead chosen to take a more politically-palatable, scientifically-anaemic path by endorsing generic methane reduction targets. This will unnecessarily lump higher costs, expedite intensification and interfere with the naturally-raised status of red meat sector for nothing more than a quasi-heroic headline. The report fails to account for the fact that ruminants are the only emitters that use up a GHG to create one and therefore should have a net figure computed and it is mystifying to see outdated metrics CO2e and GWP being used, which grossly overstate methane’s contribution.
The taxpayer needs to ask why the panel dodged their one and only role of assessing science and methane metrics. We live in a country that can't afford an adequate healthcare system yet continues to burn circa $1 Billion chasing methane reductions. Perhaps it was too embarrassing to admit that any global warming effect of NZ methane is virtually non-existent and so inconsequential that it cannot be measured".
Smith, who represents New Zealand on the Global Farmer Roundtable says this is a leadership failure by the New Zealand livestock sector who could have led the world by using the latest science and not being swept-up in climate catastrophisation.
"This could have been our moment to show the world that pasture-raised protein is the answer, not the criminal. Sadly, any generic reduction targets will take us down the road of continuing to live a lie through methane reduction boluses, methane vaccines and feed additives along with politically-driven genetics. Goodbye free-range, hello feedlot".