Climate change national greenhouse gas inventory research grants
More than $1 million has been allocated to fund the first tranche of national greenhouse gas inventory proposals received in response to a request for proposals through the Plan of Action for Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change.
In order to meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requirement to continuously improve the National Inventory, MAF has funded bids that provide information and assist with compiling New Zealand's National Inventory.
Successful bids focus on improving the following key aspects of the National Inventory for agriculture and forestry:
- Improvement of agriculture activity data, including statistics
- Agriculture inventory "best practice"
- Agriculture mitigation technology incorporation and monitoring;
- Agriculture projections and net position;
- Measurement of emissions and sinks from soils
The full list of the successful research proposals grouped by the type of research work being done is below.
Inventory Modelling
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Calculation of Projected Agricultural Emissions To 2010 and 2020 Goal: To estimate annual methane and nitrous oxide emissions from dairy cattle, beef cattle sheep and deer for 2006 and to provide emission projections for 2010 and 2020. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| To Integrate Current Methane Model Outputs Into the UNFCC 'Common Reporting Framework' Goal: To integrate the output from the current Tier 2 methane and nitrous oxide inventory computer program directly into the common reporting format (CFR) used by MfE for international reporting purposes. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Review International UNFCCC N2O Inventory Methodologies Goal: To review at least 3 international UNFCCC inventory methodologies for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions, including any relevant N cycling models that are used to calculate these emissions, and provide recommendations for improving New Zealand's agricultural nitrous oxide inventory methodology that will address the recommendations by the 2007 UNFCCC Expert Review Team. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Review of Nitrous Oxide Emission Factors and Activity Data for Crops Goal: To review NZ's current emissions factors and activity data for cropping, legumes, stubble and savannah burning activities against current IPCC default factors. |
Crop and Food Research $50,000/$75,000 |
| A Scoping Study on the Development of a National Agricultural Inventory Framework Goal: To assess the feasibility of incorporating the New Zealand agricultural non-CO2 GHG inventory methodologies into the Colorado State University's Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software Tool (CAALU). |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $184,568 |
Reviewing International Context of Current NZ Practice
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| International Peer Review of NZ's Methane Model Goal: Undertake a peer review of NZ's agricultural methane model to ensure it provides an accurate and scientifically defensible indication of NZ's obligations in accordance to UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. |
On-Farm Research Limited Less than $50,000 |
| Review IPCC 2006 Guidelines to Determine NZ Inventory Requirements From 2010 Goal: To identify the implications of adopting the IPCC 2006 Good Practice Guidelines as NZ's national GHG inventory methodology for agriculture on: the national GHG inventory values; and future research requirements. |
AgResearch $50,000/$75,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $117,825 |
Uncertainty and Validation of Current NZ Inventory Models
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Uncertainty of National Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories Goal: To analyse the model used to determine grazing ruminant's annual energy requirement for maintenance and production and develop a method for policy analysts to assess uncertainties in the ruminant methane and nitrous oxide emissions inventories. |
Landcare Research $50,000/$75,000 |
| Enhancing Confidence in Extrapolating Emission Measurements Goal: To determine the requirements needed to enhance confidence in extrapolating small-scale emission measurements (animal-scale for methane, patch-scale for nitrous oxide) to regional or national emission inventories. |
NIWA $50,000/$75,000 |
| Capturing Mitigation Technology Effects in National Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories Goal: To develop the structure of ruminant methane and agricultural soils nitrous oxide emissions inventories so that it is able to capture the effects of mitigation technologies, and ii) to develop protocols and checklists for the QA/QC requirements and 2006 GPG information needs (including different Tiers) for incorporating mitigation technologies in the inventory methodology. |
Landcare Research $75,000/$100,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $229,500 |
Documentation and Publishing
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| To Complete Documentation of the Ruminant Methane Model Goal: To provide a fully updated description of the methodology used to estimate methane emissions from New Zealand ruminants. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| To Establish a 'Lay' Persons Guide to Agricultural GHG Emissions and Information Base and Develop Simple Web Based Calculations for Agricultural Emissions at the Farm Level Goal: To improve awareness amongst the general public around agricultural greenhouse gases (GHG) by producing a clear and simple explanation of the source of agriculture greenhouse gases (suitable for printed and electronic media) and by developing a simple web-based calculator suitable for approximating greenhouse gas emissions at the farm scale from a minimum data set. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Role of Inhibitors in Mitigating Nitrogen Losses From Urine and Fertiliser Inputs In Pastures Goal: To make available, through publication, results of research on the mitigation potential of nitrification (DCD – Dicyandiamide) and urease (Agrotain) inhibitors to reduce N losses from cattle urine and urea application to pasture soil. |
Landcare Research Less than $50,000 |
| Calculation of Current 2006 and Projected Agricultural Emissions to 2010 and 2020-For Publication in the NZ Journal of Expt Agriculture. Goal: To publish a summary of New Zealand rumen methane emissions 1997-2007 in the New Zealand Journal of Experimental Agriculture. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $95,000 |
Additional Proposals
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Review for a New Zealand Specific Frac-Gasm and Frac-Gasf New Emission Factors Goal: To review all peer-reviewed published, and available unpublished, research undertaken in New Zealand of relevance to the nitrous oxide inventory factors FracGASM and FracGASF and to recommend a strategy for developing NZ-specific factors. |
Lincoln University Less than $50,000 |
| Improving the Methane Model by Reviewing the Carcass Weight/Liveweight Relationships Goal: Review the carcass weight/liveweight relationships within the New Zealand methane model. |
On-Farm Research Limited Less than $50,000 |
| New Zealand Dairy Pasture Quality Goal: The NZ greenhouse gas inventory requires an estimate of pasture quality to calculate animal daily mean intake (DMI) and from this, methane yield. Current pasture quality estimates are drawn from two published papers on very small numbers of farms. The South Island Dairy Lameness Group project (SIDLG) has about 1000 pasture quality samples from 70 farms which will be used to provide more accurate benchmarks for the NZ greenhouse gas inventory. |
Lincoln University Less than $50,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $85,161 |
Field Trials
| Title | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Determination of Methane Emissions per Unit of Intake in Young Beef/ Dairy Animals Goal: To establish whether, in common with sheep, there are differences in methane emissions between mature and immature animals when expressed on a unit of intake basis. |
AgResearch $75,000/$100,000 |
| Determination of Effect of Levels of Intake on Methane Emissions per Unit of Intake in Sheep Goal: To establish whether the level of intake (i.e. multiples of feed intake above maintenance feeding level), decreases methane emissions per unit of intake in sheep. |
AgResearch $175,000/$200,000 |
| Determination of Regional Differences in Methane Emissions in Dairy Animals Goal: To establish whether the recent developments in the dairy industry mean greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sector need to be estimated by aggregating regional data rather than adopting a national approach. |
AgResearch Less than $50,000 |
| Refining the Nitrous oxide Emission Factor for Animal Dung Deposited to Pasture in New Zealand Goal: A series of plot trials will be conducted to determine nitrous oxide emission factors from application of dairy cow, beef cow and sheep dung on 6 different soil types throughout New Zealand. An additional treatment, "cow dung + DCD (a nitrification inhibitor)", to two poorly-drained soils will also be included to determine effects of DCD use on nitrous oxide emissions from application of cow dung. |
AgResearch $125,000/$150,000 |
| Effect of Timing of DCD Application relative to urine deposition on Nitrous Oxide Mitigation Goal: To determine the influence of elapsed time between nitrification inhibitor (DCD) application and urine deposition on the effectiveness of DCD to mitigate nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture. |
Lincoln University $100,000/$125,000 |
| Determination of Factors Affecting Upscaling on Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Hill Country Goal: To provide: a framework for estimating and up-scaling nitrous oxide emissions from hill country farms; recommend the most effective field campaigns to be conducted to determine EF3 in key Hill country Land Units (HLU) in NZ. |
AgResearch $50,000/$75,000 |
| Total funding for this category | $586,417 |
Budget Summary
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Inventory Modelling | $184,568 |
| Reviewing International Context of Current NZ Practice | $117,825 |
| Uncertainty and Validation of Current NZ Inventory Models | $229,500 |
| Documentation and Publishing | $95,000 |
| Additional Proposals | $85,161 |
| Field Trials | $586,417 |
| Total | $1,298,471 |
Contact for Enquiries
Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change
MAF
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 CLIMATE (254 628)
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