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NZ Herald
22-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Groundswell and the new scaremongering about climate action
Some people found this month's ravaging floods in Nelson and Tasman quite scary, but never mind. Plans to identify who's helping to cause floods like that and who's helping to prevent them are apparently much worse. Talk about scaremongering. What does the taxonomy plan really mean? AgriZeroNZ has one answer. This joint venture between the Government, agribusinesses and banks has just announced a $6.3 million investment in BiomEdit. BiomEdit is an Indiana-based company that makes probiotic feed additives designed to boost productivity and reduce methane emissions from dairy cows. This is AgriZeroNZ's third such investment. Chief executive Wayne McNee says, 'We're investing in local and global companies to give us the best chance of providing New Zealand farmers with access to a range of affordable, effective mitigation solutions to choose from.' The taxonomy plan will allow this kind of financing to be accurately and independently assessed and labelled. Why would anyone call that 'the scariest thing'? Groundswell has come a long way in a short time. In 2020 this group of Southland farmers started to build a nationwide network with tractor convoy protests, sporting slogans like 'No tax on food production' and 'Don't bite the hand that feeds you'. Part of a Groundswell protest at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell Back then, Groundswell was relatively fringe. Since then, it has channelled climate denialism and anti-government campaigns into high-powered lobbying. I know, they will say they're not denialists. But in my view they consistently do their best to block climate action in the rural sector. They want us out of the Paris Accord and they argue methane has been unfairly targeted. They quack like a duck. To me, they're having the same impact as climate denialists. And their lobbying is effective. In my opinion, Groundswell has bent the Feds increasingly to their views and they have influential supporters in all three parties of Government. Back to sustainable finance taxonomy, which has been proposed by Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. As press gallery journalist Richard Harman has reported, his plan aligns with similar moves in Australia and the European Union. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. Photo/ RNZ / The Centre for Sustainable Finance calls it 'a standardised framework for classifying economic activities according to their environmental performance'. The centre is a co-ordinating group that includes all the major banks and several of the big law and accountancy firms. When Watts floated the idea last September, he said, 'The strategy will provide the necessary clarity for financing and investments, helping New Zealand align with global sustainability trends. This alignment will not only attract investment but also increase jobs and drive economic growth locally.' If you think that sounds like a framework to allow banks to assess the climate impacts of lending proposals, you'd be right. Groundswell and the Feds are opposed and, in parallel, Act and NZ First both have private member's bills intended to make it illegal for financial institutions to consider 'ideology' or 'reputational risk' in their lending decisions. 'Woke banks!' complains NZ First. NZ First leader Winston Peters visiting the Covid-related protest at Parliament in 2022. Photo / Mark Mitchell This is absurd. Banks aren't driven by green ideology: they know that lending to ventures that could be undermined by climate change is bad business. They also know the world is full of greenwashing. The law firm Russell McVeagh says taxonomy 'could reduce both the risk of organisations describing financial products in a way that is accused of being misleading (greenwashing) and the risk of organisations staying silent on sustainability-related matters to avoid being accused of making misleading statements (greenhushing)'. Is that BiomEdit work credible? Sustainable finance taxonomy, done well, will tell us the answer. If it's yes, it can be promoted; if it's no, funding agencies can move on. Standing in the way of this is, to me, the same as denialism. It's also hypocritical, when it's done by political groups who claim to believe in the value of the market. Sustainable Finance Taxonomy empowers the market to make economically informed decisions. Russell McVeagh says it 'could allow the development of new financial products, such as KiwiSaver products that align ... with taxonomy criteria'. What a good thing that would be. Where does National stand on all this? Does Watts represent the party position or are the politics more subtle than that? National's climate response is very oddly mixed. To take just one example: oil and gas exploration is supposed to be restarting but the legislation to allow this is a long time coming. There's more rhetoric than reason in this policy, because it's well known that new exploration will not solve the twin energy crises of customer pricing and precarious supply. This is because prospecting outcomes are uncertain and the timelines are far too long. Meanwhile, Watts has put incentives in place to expand urban residential and rural solar power, but there's very little action to back them up. One way to read this is to assume Watts has been designated to build National's appeal to the climate-conscious middle ground of the electorate. But the party is terrified of losing provincial and rural votes to Act and NZ First, so Watts gets to say more than he gets to do. And while the oil and gas policy won't change anything we need changing, it does reward some very well-oiled lobbying from the fossil-fuel sector. Also, it allows Shane Jones to keep up the inflammatory posturing. Resources Minister Shane Jones during his appearance at the Economic Development Select Committee hearing this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell Which, in turn, provides cover for Government inaction on what's really needed: meaningful, customer-focused, climate-conscious reform of the energy sector. Where does this leave sustainable finance taxonomy? Will the Government support this initiative to reduce emissions and build climate resilience? Or will it cave in to Groundswell-inspired climate denialism and attack the ideologically-rotten greenies running the banks? It's a common view that the coalition Government has brought a new maturity to MMP, because the major party has worked out how to let the minor parties strut their own stuff, even when it's outrageous, while it gets on with its own programme. But real MMP maturity would involve more than this. If National supports Watts' plan for sorting the real climate action from the fake, and its partners are away chasing their denialist base, it should call on Opposition support. Call out that 'scariest thing yet' nonsense: that's how to stop the tail wagging the dog. And getting a mid-ground consensus to do the right thing is also very likely the way to build more trust and respect for politicians. Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.
NZ Herald
01-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
AgriZeroNZ puts millions into US start-up reducing methane emissions
AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee said Hoofprint was aiming to launch its first product in early 2027, subject to approval from the Ministry for Primary Industries to use the supplement on New Zealand farms. 'They're developing two different things,' he said. 'One is an enzyme blend that you mix into supplementary feed, which looks to reduce emissions by about 80% while at the same time improving milk yield and meat yield. 'The great benefit for a farmer would be if you can make more meat and milk with the same amount of feed, and also reduce emissions, that would be ideal. 'This [enzyme] still needs to be fed as a feed supplement, but only a small amount once a day.' The enzyme could work for dairy cows, which come into the milking shed once or twice daily. 'The company is also looking to develop probiotics which would enable it to be fed less often, maybe weekly or monthly, which could then be used for a much more extensive system like a beef or sheep system.' McNee said Hoofprint representatives had been visiting New Zealand looking for research partners to run an animal trial. Methane from livestock makes up almost half of New Zealand's annual tally of greenhouse gas emissions. AgriZeroNZ is a joint venture aimed at getting that tally down by investing in new methane-cutting products. It is half owned by the Government and half owned by a group of companies including The a2 Milk Company, ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Fonterra, Rabobank, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms and Synlait. Its latest investment takes AgriZeroNZ's total investment in Hoofprint to $13 million, its largest investment to date. It has also invested in several other potential methane-cutting products, including another US start-up, ArkeaBio, trialling a methane vaccine. The first product likely to reach farmers is a slow-release bolus out of New Zealand that releases bromoform into an animal's gut. New Zealand company Ruminant Biotech has developed a small metal capsule (bolus), which delivers a potent methane-squashing medicine, which McNee said should be ready in 2026, before Hoofprint's enzymes. Fonterra has also been trialling its own 'Kowbucha' probiotic to cut methane from dairy cows. Meanwhile, New Zealand scientists have been working on their own vaccine and methane inhibitors for years, McNee having a range of alternatives on the market would help keep prices competitive for farmers. There was also potential for additional benefits from adding together different products - but it was too soon to know whether that would work, he said.
RNZ News
01-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
AgrizeroNZ puts millions into start-up reducing methane emissions
US-based company Hoofprint Biome said its animal feed supplements will also improve farm animals' gut health. Photo: 123rf New Zealand climate investor AgrizeroNZ has put another $8.7 million into an American start-up that is promising to lower the climate-warming impact of cow burps. AgrizeroNZ said it is happy with the initial results from small US trials feeding animals enzymes that are aimed at reducing their methane emissions. US-based company Hoofprint Biome said its animal feed supplements will also improve farm animals' gut health and make livestock around five percent more productive of milk and meat. However, the product still needs testing in larger trials, including a planned trial in New Zealand. AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee said Hoofprint was aiming to launch its first product in early 2027, subject to approval from the Ministry for Primary Industries to use the supplement on New Zealand farms. "They're developing two different things. One is an enzyme blend that you mix into supplementary feed, which looks to reduce emissions by about 80 per cent while at the same time improving milk yield and meat yield," he said. "The great benefit for a farmer would be if you can make more meat and milk with the same amount of feed and also reduce emissions, that would be ideal. "This [enzyme] still needs to be fed as a feed supplement but only a small amount once a day." The enzyme could work for dairy cows which come into the milking shed once or twice daily. "The company is also looking to develop probiotics which would enable it to be fed less often, maybe weekly or monthly, which could then be used for a much more extensive system like a beef or sheep system." McNee said Hoofprint representatives had been visiting New Zealand looking for research partners to run an animal trial. Methane from livestock makes up almost half of New Zealand's annual tally of greenhouse gas emissions. AgrizeroNZ is a joint venture aimed at getting that tally down by investing in new methane-cutting products. It is half owned by the New Zealand government and half owned by a group of companies including The a2 Milk Company, ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Fonterra, Rabobank, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms and Synlait. Its latest investment takes AgrizeroNZ's total investment in Hoofprint to $13 million, it largest investment to date . It has also invested in several other potential methane-cutting products, including another US start-up - ArkeaBio - trialling a methane vaccine . The first product likely to reach farmers is a slow-release bolus out of New Zealand that releases bromoform into an animal's gut. New Zealand company Ruminant Biotech has developed a small metal capsule (bolus) , which delivers a potent methane-squashing medicine, which McNee said should be ready in 2026, before Hoofprint's enzymes. Fonterra has also been trialling its own "Kowbucha" probiotic to cut methane from dairy cows. Meanwhile, New Zealand scientists have been working on their own vaccine and methane inhibitors for years, McNee having a range of alternatives on the market would help keep prices competitive for farmers. There was also potential for additional benefits from adding together different products - but it was too soon to know whether that would work, he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
