Greenhouse gases and climate change

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That is just one of many issues scientists, industry, and government representatives will discuss at a workshop on climate change and greenhouse gases in Wellington on Thursday and Friday this week.

The workshop has been organised by NIWA in conjunction with PGgRc, the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium, and will be opened by Pete Hodgson, Minister of Research, Science & Technology. Keynote speakers include Tom Lambie, the President of Federated Farmers of New Zealand, Warwick Green from Wrightsons, and David Wratt, New Zealand’s representative on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from NIWA.

“This workshop provides an ideal opportunity to bring stakeholders together for an exchange of views with scientific experts researching methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide mitigation in New Zealand”, said Mark Leslie, Chairman of the NZ research consortium studying agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (PGgRc).

“One of the goals is to ensure that scientists gain a better understanding of the concerns and needs of New Zealand’s pastoral sector, and that farmers, farmer representatives, and those involved in the wider agriculture industry hear more about the research being done in this area”, Mr Leslie said. “We will be discussing some of the promising scientific leads in terms of productivity improvements and how greenhouse gas mitigation tools can be applied on New Zealand’s pastoral livestock farms”, he added.

“NIWA has been running workshops like this every three years”, said Chief Executive Dr Rick Pridmore. “We want to enhance communication between industry, research, and regulators.

“New Zealand needs an accurate assessment of the amount of greenhouse gases released from all sources, and needs to know what happens to them when they get into the atmosphere. That means we need go right down to farm scale and do things like measure air currents and methane around paddocks, so we can produce detailed models of dispersion”, Dr Pridmore said.

“While the focus of the workshop is primarily national, it provides an important opportunity for us to monitor international developments”, said Mr Leslie, “and we are delighted to be able to host at the workshop a high-level delegation from Japan, including leading scientists Professor Hisao Itabashi and Dr Mitsunori Kurihara”.

“This visit has been supported by the Ministry of Research, Science & Technology, the Royal Society of NZ, and the Ministries of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, and Foreign Affairs of Japan. During the group’s visit we will be discussing opportunities for New Zealand and Japan to work collaboratively, through the PGGRC”, Mr Leslie explained.

Notes

PGGRC is partly funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and has the following participants: Fonterra Limited, Meat NZ, AgResearch Ltd, Dairy InSight, Wrightson Ltd, DEEResearch Ltd and the Fertiliser Manufacturers’ Research Association.

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