How Climate Policies Create Agricultural Change: The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and Its Influence On Farmer Decision Making.

New Zealand is slated to be the first country in the world to require agriculture to participate in a mandatory emissions trading scheme (ETS).  In theory, the ETS is aiming to achieve behavior change across multiple sectors including agriculture to shift towards lower emitting activities.  Farmers and agricultural processors have an important role to play in the adoption of technologies and innovations that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but little is known about how the policy may influence these behaviors.  Furthermore, limited research exists to examine the multiple variables that influence the adoption of agricultural mitigation practices in developed agricultural nations like New Zealand.  Greater understanding about the drivers that may encourage or importantly hinder the adoption of agricultural climate change practices can provide tangible information to cooperative extension, policymakers, and industry professionals to better target their outreach, education and policy initiatives.

This presentation will discuss ongoing research in New Zealand in collaboration with AgResearch, Ltd. (New Zealand’s largest Crown Research Institute) to survey and interview farmers and agricultural industry professionals about the adoption of climate change practices in agriculture, the impact of the ETS on behavior change, and the role of policy and information in encouraging adoption.  Interviews with 17 agricultural industry professionals were conducted in 2010 across eight types of agricultural commodities.   A farmer survey is being implemented in the summer of 2012 across New Zealand to assess farmer perspectives towards climate change, likely practices for adoption, and the role of the ETS and other policies in encouraging or discouraging adoption of agricultural climate change practices.  Based on the New Zealand example, suggestions will be provided about the ways that outreach, education, and policy can be designed to encourage the adoption of practices in agriculture for climate change mitigation and adaptation.