After two years of debate, the New Zealand
legislature yesterday voted to adopt changes in its emissions
trading scheme (NZ ETS) proposed in November.
The adoption of the scheme will mean carbon
offsets by forest owners will have to trade their carbon credits locally
instead of exporting
them to Europe. It also has huge
implications for the livestock industry.
Unlike the EU Emissions Trading Scheme,
though, the NZ scheme will include all six greenhouse gases identified in the
Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons
(HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
The biggest hurdle to date has been the
issue of methane being emitted from cattle.
Bovines typically lose around 6% of
their ingested energy through methane emissions.
Collectively, sheep and cattle produce between 400 and 600 million
tons of methane per year, which is a carbon equivalent of around 10 billion
tons of CO2.
In fact, according to a recent
UN report, rearing cattle actually produces more greenhouse gases than
driving cars.
Initially, the government and the NZ
Farmers Association planned to simply follow the US EPA's AgSTAR Program to recycle waste
manure. However, this wouldn't work so
well in New Zealand where sheep and cattle are grass fed (free range) rather
than grain fed (where their first look at the outside world is the trip to the
abattoir).
But thanks to a grant from the New Zealand Climate Change Information
Agency (NZ CIA), a part of the Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand's
own Sheep Research Foundation
developed two new methods for harvesting the methane from livestock.
First, all livestock will be fitted with manure
catchers similar to the horse bun bag.
These will be fitted with an electronic catch which will automatically
trigger when the livestock are within 5m of a predetermined position for manure
collection.
Second, to capture the belching --
responsible for more than half of the methane emissions, livestock will be
fitted with carbon filter gas masks. A
series of balances allow the mask to open when in feeding position and close
when in "chewing the cud" mode.
These WWI technology masks capture 80% of
the CH4 emitted if changed every day.
The special design, which reduces the
permeability of the filters as they absorb methane, will reduce the oxygen
intake of the animal and make it easier to catch and replace the filter.
Over time, the livetock will learn to head
to the filter change location and either have their filters changed by a farm
hand, or change their own filter. According
to the head researcher, Cliff
Rogering, sheep can be trained to do just about anything.
Of course, this could all be unnecessary in
the end, thanks to a team of New Zealand researchers who mapped
the sheep flatulence genome and are working on a vaccine. (My girlfriend has already pre-ordered one
for me).
This, combined with flatulence
retarding cashew oil and new low flatulence grasses could reduce bovine
emissions to that of Le
Pétomane.
While I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to
global warming and supposed solutions, for once I'm pleasantly surprised to see
government doing something well, and raising the level of respect the world has
for our Kiwi friends.
Cheers,
Peter.
