The first comprehensive OECD report on New Zealand’s environment in a decade calls for action on cows’ greenhouse gases and water pollution, better public transport and warmer housing, including cosier new-builds. It lands on the same day as another report outlining ways to cut emissions – by reducing cow numbers, reports Eloise Gibson.
It’s all about cows, although our cars and cities could also use a tidy-up, the OECD has concluded.
In their first comprehensive report on New Zealand’s environment in a decade, the OECD’s environmental review team called for agriculture to be brought into the Emissions Trading Scheme and said the Government needed a plan for meeting its greenhouse gas targets, while still earning more from exports.
Conveniently, the same day, London-based consultancy Vivid Economics published a plan commissioned by a cross-party group of MPs outlining how New Zealand could do its part to keep global warming under a 2°C increase.
Again, it was all about the cows. Even with ambitious improvements in renewable electricity generation and other sectors, Vivid concluded New Zealand will need to cut livestock numbers and plant more trees to be carbon neutral by the end of the century and meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. Cow herds would need to shrink even assuming impressive leaps in science and technology, like the fruition of Kiwi scientists’ efforts to design a vaccine making cows burp less greenhouse gas.
Both reports raise questions about how the Government’s goal of increasing exports can be reached without huge environmental costs, unless we also change how, and what, we farm.
And both reports question how New Zealand will meet its environmental goals if it keeps intensifying dairying.
“New Zealand’s growth model, largely based on exporting primary products, has started to show its environmental limits, with increased greenhouse gas emissions, diffuse freshwater pollution and threats to biodiversity. A long-term vision for the transition towards a low-carbon, greener economy is necessary,” says the OECD report.
“There are likely trade-offs between continued reliance on exporting primary products and environmental and climate change mitigation goals. New Zealand should build on its well-developed knowledge and innovation system for exporting higher value export products and decouple growth from natural resource use,” it adds.
Cars and cities feature, too. The OECD report includes advice for building more liveable homes and cities, less-polluting transport and cleaner waterways. Ramping up public transport investment instead of pouring money into roads, levelling taxes favouring diesel over petrol vehicles, doing more to encourage electric cars and better housing insulation are all on the “please do” list. And it’s not just mouldy old villas that are highlighted in the housing efficiency area. Even new houses are not being built to as high an energy-efficiency standard as they are in many other countries, meaning they may one day need retrofitting, says the report.
When it comes to cars: “Freight and people travel mostly by road; the car ownership rate is the highest in the OECD; and the fleet is relatively old and inefficient,” is its summary of New Zealand’s transport system.
The review team prefaces its comments by recognising New Zealand gets a lot of things right. We have a green reputation, our cities have plenty of green space, we are good global citizens and people have good access to clean air and pristine wilderness, it says.
The good, the bad and the going-to-get-worse
Cows feature heavily in two of the most critical parts of the OECD report – greenhouse gas emissions and waterways. On water quality, the review team notes some good progress by the government in bringing in a national policy on freshwater, and efforts by farmers and rule-makers to fence waterways and clean up Lake Taupo. But it says regional councils are implementing the national water policy slowly and patchily, saying they need more help from the government if they are going to clean up freshwater, faster.
Depressingly, the report points out there might a significant lag in the water-dirtying system, meaning pollution that has already left farms during the dairy boom is yet to reach waterways – and even with the best clean-up effort, water quality may get worse for a while.
Urban storm-water is a problem too, with the review labelling city runoff to waterways as a growing public health concern
Cows and other farm animals also cropped up as a major obstacle to meeting greenhouse gas targets. Leaving farming out of the Emissions Trading Scheme was listed as one of the main reasons why the ETS hasn’t been effective, along with a flood of cheap international credits and other measures that have kept the price of carbon too low to spur people to action.
The review recommended several ways to sharpen the ETS’ teeth, including bringing in animal burps, livestock manure and emissions from nitrogen fertiliser sooner rather than later.
“Given the significance of agricultural biological emissions, continuing to shield them from mitigation obligations would make meeting these objectives harder, place a disproportionate burden on other sectors and slow the pace of adjustment in the agriculture sector,” the report says.
Tidy timing
Another report, also out today, by London-based climate and economic consultants Vivid Economics, laid out some options for New Zealand to reach carbon neutrality in the second half of the century, all of them requiring shifts away from farming cows.
The report was commissioned by a cross-party group of MPs called GLOBE-NZ, a chapter of GLOBE-International, a global group of parliamentarians who are working on climate and environmental issues. The New Zealand chapter was formed a year and a half ago and includes MPs from every party, led by Green MP Kennedy Graham. It paid for the report using funding from charitable donors (including the Morgan Foundation), the British and U.S embassies and companies including Vector, Mercury Energy and Z Energy.
The Vivid report came up with various scenarios for New Zealand to become carbon neutral before 2100 and do its part to meet the Paris climate goal of keeping warming to a rise of 2°C, or, ideally, lower. It concludes we can be carbon neutral this century, but not without replacing some of our cows with trees.
First the authors look at a technologically optimistic scenario, where efforts to design fixes for farm and household greenhouse gases come to fruition by 2050. Such fixes would include New Zealand’s bid to design a vaccine to cut methane belching by sheep and cows, selective breeding of more climate-friendly animals and precision agriculture to curb nitrogen waste. Electric heating and use of electric vehicles for freight would also need to make a major leap. We would still need to have less livestock, including cows - about 20–35 per cent fewer animals than today – and more forestry, but there would be room for a diverse range of land uses, including horticulture and a substantial dairy industry.
If, on the other hand, the hoped-for techno-fixes do not pan out so impressively, New Zealand would need to plant 1.6 million hectares of plantation forests to reach carbon neutrality. Again, we would need to cut the dairy herd, though not as drastically, and sheep and beef cow numbers would also need to shrink. And we would still need technological breakthroughs, for example in farming and freight transport, albeit not as radical as in the first scenario. In a third scenario, we keep all our cows, expand forestry only a little bit and ramp up reliance on electric vehicles, renewable energy and other climate-friendly strategies. But this would see us achieve carbon neutrality well after 2100.
All of the paths involved moving towards 100 percent renewable electricity, with more electric vehicles, and shifting the economy to lower-emissions industries such as forestry and crops.
An important factor is what other countries do. As the report acknowledges, there is no point moving away from intensive dairying and meat production for climate reasons if people around the world do not change their diets towards less climate-intensive foods. If demand for milk and meat continues to soar, any drop-off in New Zealand’s production might be filled with products from more-polluting countries. The authors stress the report was designed to explore ideas and options – not dictate what New Zealand should do, regardless of other considerations.
"Distinct position"
Farming of all animals, but mainly cows, currently makes up about half New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions. Unlike other developed countries New Zealand doesn’t have the comparatively straightforward option of reforming its electricity generation to radically cut emissions, because most of our power is already renewable.
So far the major gains in farms’ greenhouse efficiency – here and globally - have come from raising productivity, thus shrinking the CO2 hoof-print per kilo of food produced. But raising the productivity and intensity of farming has placed added pressure on the environment, as the Vivid Economics and OECD reports highlight.
The Vivid authors say New Zealand is in a “distinctive” position among developed countries because of its high animal emissions. But they also say we are lucky not to have to contend with an entrenched reliance on coal power, like some countries.
| A Newsroom release by Eloise Gibson is Newsroom's environment and science editor. She's written for the New Zealand Herald, Stuff.co.nz, The Listener, and BBC Future.com. Twitter: @eloise_gibson. \ March 21, 2017 ||
By-product of Marcom build up
Vodafone has joined in the online media gold rush by what it describes as “launching its own news website.”
The New Zealand subsidiary of the British mobiles telco in recent times has swelled its marketing communications force with television, business, and IT sector journalists.
The company’s “news” website meanwhile resembles an online version of the once familiar IT sector marketing support instrument, the house magazine.
The company’s news site hardly surprisingly features Vodafone in its community role.
Notably with emphasis on its participation in the post–earthquake Christchurch reconstruction participation.
Also its ability to deploy helpful rapid support services in Oceania.
The marcom by-product news site at this stage does represent though a potential challenge to the IT trade press.
This is dominated in New Zealand by International Data, a US publishing, survey, and events operator which publishes under licence here with such titles as Computerworld, CIO, and PC World.
According to Vodafone its “Vodafone News will feature behind the scenes video of important developments, offer advice and readable features across a range of topics for consumers as well as insights from leaders in a range of diverse fields.”
A heavily promoted video-voice-words convergence over hand-helds poses a medium to longer term threat to the media at large.
This is because by definition it targets the younger market, the one which increasingly relies exclusively on palm tops of various descriptions as access to news that it can use.
Since the heyday of IT recruitment advertising, as significant in its era as property advertising is now, the print proprietors have pretty much given up on targeted IT news, absorbing it into their general business sections.
Vodafone is not the first retail telco provider to move into the wider news sector.
Telecom was first off the mark with an authentic diversified aggregated news site for its Xtra users. This was then subsumed into Yahoo which expanded the already comprehensive localised curated coverage.
For reasons that remain unexplained this long established open site remains un-ballyhooed.
In this reticence may lie the gap that Vodafone has identified.
| From the MSCNewsWire reporters' | 19 March 2017 ||
Auckland – The Internet of Things (IoT) will soon become critical to helping New Zealand raise its productivity and prosperity, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says.
Much of the current hype around IoT has been derived from consumer IoT such as fitness trackers and intelligent fridges. The real value to be had from the Internet of Things is in enterprise and government applications.
A collaborative national research project is underway to better understand the potential benefits (and risks) of IoT for the New Zealand economy. The project, being managed by NZTech, brings together major tech users, tech firms, the government, academia and industry groups such as TUANZ and InternetNZ, all who have an interest in the potential impact of IoT for New Zealand.
IoT impact of how Kiwis work
Muller says IoT is becoming a growing topic of conversation both in the workplace and outside of it. It’s a concept that not only has the potential to impact how Kiwis live but also how they work.
Fast broadband is becoming more widely available, the cost of connecting is decreasing, more devices are being created with wi-fi capabilities and sensors built into them, technology costs are dropping, and smartphone penetration is sky-rocketing.
Research project important
Putting all these rapid developments into the mix is creating a perfect platform for IoT to take off, Muller says, this is why the research project and a better understanding of how to apply IoT are needed.
“While IoT is a rapidly developing technology, understanding of its potential is still relatively limited. By undertaking a collaborative research project with the government, the tech sector and tech users we have an opportunity to raise the profile of IoT and highlight its potential,” Muller says.
“The research will also help us understand opportunities that IoT could create for different sectors, and any barriers or challenges that may need to be addressed to accelerate deployment.
“IoT presents a massive opportunity for technology to drive New Zealand’s economic growth. Yet to accelerate deployment and uptake, a better understanding of the opportunities is needed.
“While the research won’t be completed until mid-year, some initial observations give us cause for optimism. While current uptake is very low, with only around 10 percent of New Zealand businesses having deployed or currently planning to deploying IoT type technologies, New Zealand has all the ingredients for a business environment that will support accelerated growth.
“Compared to the G20 nations, New Zealand scores well for IoT readiness due to ease of doing business, government stability, regulatory quality, a good innovation ecosystem and education system.”
Initial economic analysis has identified potential economic benefits in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the New Zealand economy through the deployment of IoT in sectors as diverse as agriculture, utilities, manufacturing, logistics and smart city services.
IoT examples
Some of the interesting uses of IoT in New Zealand that the research has identified include:
Connected Cow sheds: The faster milk is cooled the better quality it will be. Cooling milk uses about 30 percent of the total energy costs for running a dairy farm. IoT sensors and actuators can manage the temperatures at each stage of milk flow. Real time alerts are sent by text message or app notification if problems are identified. This enables the farmer to resolve the problem quickly to minimise milk loss.
Smart street lighting: Saves a city money in energy costs and reduces pollution by intelligently trimming and dimming individually addressed lights. Auckland Transport is installing around 40,000 smart LED streetlights which can individually respond to local light conditions saving millions.
Better health and safety: Wearables for employees can manage that employee’s site access levels, improve awareness and adherence to health and safety requirements, and enable better utilisation of staff in real time workforce management.
The research will be published in June this year. Global researcher IDC forecasts there will be 30.4 billion connected things worldwide by 2020.
| A Make Lemonade release | March 19, 2017 ||
Prime Minister Bill English announced today that he and Premier Li will hold official talks in Wellington, and that he and the Premier will also meet business leaders in Auckland during his visit from 26 to 29 March.
"The visit is an important opportunity to set the agenda for the next stage of our strong relationship and demonstrates our shared commitment to open trade and economic growth," Mr English says.
Premier Li’s visit marks the 45th year of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand, and comes three years after China and New Zealand declared a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during a visit to New Zealand by President Xi Jinping.
Li Keqiang previously visited New Zealand in 2009 as Vice Premier, at the invitation of Mr English in his then-capacity as Deputy Prime Minister.
"Premier Li knows New Zealand well, and I look forward to discussing with him opportunities for our two countries and the region."
The Premier will be accompanied by his wife, Professor Cheng Hong, as well as a large official and business delegation.
China is New Zealand’s second-largest trading partner. Two-way trade reached a new all-time high of NZ$23 billion in 2016. More than 400,000 Chinese tourists visited New Zealand last year, spending over $1.6 billion. In addition nearly 35,000 Chinese students are studying in New Zealand.
| A beehive release | March 19, 2017 ||
Waipukurau – New Zealand is potentially at risk of damaging its economy, unless the government does not act on improving rural health services, a national rural leader says.
Michelle Thompson, chief executive of the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand (RHAANZ), says rural New Zealanders do not receive equitable health services. She says Kiwis in cities receive far better health support than in rural areas.
The RHAANZ met politicians in Parliament this week and pleaded for a much better health deal for rural people.
Economic powerhouses
“Agriculture and tourism are the powerhouses of our economy. Each year, more than two and a half million tourists visit rural New Zealand. In 2011-2012, $40 billion, or 19 percent of GDP, was generated directly or indirectly by the agri-food sector,” Thompson says.
“If the spending power of these people is considered, then the contribution of the agri-food sector is $53 billion, or one dollar in every four dollars spent in the economy. Yet the health and social services for this population are under increasing and significant pressure to deliver.
“We met with politicians from all the main parties this week and all were concerned for rural health. They are keen to follow this through and some have asked for further meetings before the election, because this has become a key election issue.
“More importantly, we hope to meet with Ministers of Health and Primary Industries as soon as possible, because the rural population of more than 600,000 needs easier access to modern health services and facilities, for the economic safeguard of our country. We need equitable health services for rural people. Currently we don’t have this and we urgently need to change this for rural people.
Rural health, a financial powerhouse
“New Zealand’s main producers live in the country and they are the economic backbone and financial heartland of our nation. So, it matters vitally to all New Zealanders that rural people have good health services and good health outcomes.
“Our appeal to government is a call to bring health services closer to home and timely transfer to emergency services when needed. We said we need a more vibrant rural health and social service workforce. We need social and technical connectivity in all rural areas. We are asking for rural health research.
“We need to make our small towns liveable so that people want to come and live there and stay. If we can make our rural communities vibrant again many of our issues will be solved,” Thompson says.
| A Make Lemonade release | March 19, 2017 ||
BADEN-BADEN, Germany The world's top economic powers have dropped a pledge to fully oppose trade protectionism, amid pushback from the government of U.S. President Donald Trump. Finance ministers at a Group of 20 meeting in Germany issued a statement Saturday that said only that countries "are working to strengthen the contribution of trade" to their economies. By comparison, last year's meeting called on... Full article on World powers drop pledge to fully oppose trade protectionism . . .read full release here
| A World News release | March 18, 2017 ||
Co-venturing Wellington and Auckland universities will rub collegiate shoulders with world’s major production engineer
General Motors subsidiary Holden’s arrival in Newsroom as founder-backer of the online information enterprise is GM’s second venture into the New Zealand information sector.
It was New Zealand’s major data processing proprietor when it owned Databank through another of its subsidiaries, Electronic Data Systems.
Databank at this time was considered the southern hemisphere’s pre-eminent non-governmental data processing operation in terms of capacity.
GM’s return this year to the New Zealand information sector carries value through the early involvement in it also of the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington.
GM internationally is accelerating its recruitment of information technology graduates and its ground-floor involvement with the two universities will give it a special advantage in talent-spotting.
The auto manufacturer originally entered the information sector when it acquired Electronic Data Systems from Ross Perot of US presidential race fame.
With Electronic Data Systems now came New Zealand’s Databank at that time the world’s first and most successful nationwide cheque-clearing cooperative.
General Motors began to shed its non-core investments such as Electronic Data Systems and thus Databank as Asian manufacturers continued to pour on the competition.
Its new cat’s paw into the public dissemination sector of the information business in New Zealand through the Newsroom co-seeding also presents a valuable opportunity to the two universities involved, the ones in Auckland and Wellington.
This will be to take advantage of the commercial collegiate opportunity of rubbing shoulders as co-venturers with a research and development investing production engineer of this magnitude.
A constant problem for New Zealand universities has been to get on a working level with this category of production engineering multinational.
The indirect solution via the Newsroom joint involvement indicates a working opportunity that has consistently eluded New Zealand universities in the co-development sphere.
If the association looks a fruitful creative mix in automotive/academic terms then the news venture promoters could well find themselves with sufficient additional investment allowing them to take their foot off the paywall accelerator.
New Zealand browsers continue to exhibit a reluctance to pay for a service that they consider part of the free model.
| From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk | Fidy 17 March 2017 ||
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has signed an Agricultural Cooperation Arrangement with Argentina today, aimed at building closer relationships between the two countries.
The Arrangement was signed at the Central District Fieldays in Feilding today with Argentina’s Secretary of Agriculture, Ricardo Negri, during his three day visit to New Zealand.
“New Zealand and Argentina have a close relationship, particularly in agricultural sciences,” says Mr Guy.
“This new Arrangement creates a framework for greater cooperation between our two countries in the agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial sectors, including opportunities for technical exchanges, joint research, innovation and value addition.
“Two-way trade between Argentina and New Zealand is growing, particularly in primary sectors. The Arrangement will support strengthened economic relations between both countries with agriculture at the centre of this.”
As like-minded countries, Argentina and New Zealand are active participants in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
“Agriculture is critical to the economic wellbeing of our countries and we both benefit by working together to address the challenges of climate change. We are natural partners in developing practical, sustainable solutions for reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
“Our research institutions are already exploring opportunities for joint research into areas such as methane vaccines.
“New Zealand and Argentinean farmers have also worked together through an annual farmers study tour, organised by the Global Research Alliance and the World Farmers Organisation.
“Our countries are mindful that for research and development to be effective it will need to be readily picked up by farmers.
“Under the agreement there are also opportunities for us to collaborate on the development of new biosecurity tools to tackle pests and diseases of concern to both countries.”
| A Beehive release | March 16, 2017 ||
The easing of United Nations sanctions against Iran in 2016 has created export opportunities for New Zealand. There is significant scope for increased trade, but care is needed.
The Government puts its shoulder to the wheel
Since United Nations sanctions were eased in 2016, there has been an uptick in government-to-government contact between New Zealand and Iran. The latest visit was by Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy early this month.
While in Iran, Minister Guy witnessed the conclusion of a Meat Agreement between the Iranian Veterinary Organisation and the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries and the signing of a Statement of Intent between Zespri and Iran's Ministry of Agriculture.
These developments are commercially significant. Iran, with a population of over 80 million people, is the second largest economy in the Middle East-North Africa region. It was among New Zealand's top five export markets for lamb in the 1980s and remains a critical market for New Zealand butter.
Other recent political contacts include:
During Dr Zarif's visit in 2016, the New Zealand Export Credit Office (NZECO) signed an arrangement with the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) designed to help facilitate economic cooperation between the two countries.
Dealing with financial institutions in Iran
The lifting last year by the US Government of secondary sanctions which constrained the engagement of non-US banks in financial transactions with Iranian individuals and entities has removed an obvious impediment to trade – although problems remain.
On the plus side, there is now far greater scope for non-US banks to legally process Iranian payments. They may transact with Iranian financial institutions not on the US Treasury's List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List). According to the US Treasury, the institutions removed include most Iranian financial institutions.
However:
It is also important for companies to be aware that in the event of significant non-performance by Iran of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) pursuant to which United Nations sanctions were lifted, those sanctions will “snapback" and be re-imposed. The US has committed not to retroactively impose sanctions for legitimate activity undertaken before the date of re-imposition of sanctions, and OFAC has indicated that if a snapback occurred, it would work with non-US companies to minimise any impact on that legitimate activity.
In addition, there are autonomous (i.e. non-United Nations) US sanctions related to terrorism and human rights violations, as well as questions about how aspects of the OFAC guidance relating to the lifting of the United Nations sanctions is to be interpreted.
In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has imposed new sanctions on persons or organisations which procure technology or materials to support Iran's ballistic missile programme or have links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. While this is unlikely to have any real impact on New Zealand companies looking to export to Iran, it may have a cooling effect on banks already reluctant to update their risk profiles to reflect the new regulatory environment outlined above.
Chapman Tripp comment
Pursuing opportunities with Iran will not be straightforward – Minister McCully noted only last week that while the Government is seeking to deepen economic ties with Iran, remaining banking restrictions make this “a bit difficult".1
It has been reported that Western banks have been hesitant to deal with Iran, due in part to concerns about whether doing so might cause them to run into problems with the US Treasury. But OFAC released guidance in 2016 that should give banks some comfort that they can structure transactions so as not to fall foul of the sanctions that remain in place.
Those remaining sanctions must be carefully managed. But they should not stop businesses from working with their financial institutions to investigate ways of accessing the Iranian market or increase their exports to Iran.
Undertaking thorough due diligence both on the part of exporters and financial institutions will be critical. But the potential prize may be well worth the effort. If you need guidance understanding the risks, and how to mitigate them, please contact a member of our expert team.
1“Government hopeful of free-trade deal with Gulf states this year – McCully", www.stuff.co.nz, 7 March, 2017.
| A ChapmanTripp release | March 16, 2017 ||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242