Investment in research that benefits the environment has risen less than $50 million over the last eight years.
New Zealand sits below the average for research and development spending as a percentage of gross domestic product in the developed world.
Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith Goldsmith said in May the reason New Zealand hasn’t invested heavily in research and development is because our economy is small.
Manufacturers spent $600m on innovation between 2014 and 2016. The Government put $32m towards its own primary industry and environmental research projects over those two years.
Business will receive an extra $74.6 million of government funding for research and development over the next four years, but must spend at least $300,000 on research and development to qualify for a grant of up to $5m.
One of the areas New Zealand is researching into is the reduction of agricultural greenhouse gases.
The impact of agriculture on global warming could be as high as 14 per cent, but livestock may be responsible for even more, said Andy Reisinger , the deputy director (International) of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre in April.
There are several mitigation factors for livestock in the pipeline, but finding something that works on grass-fed New Zealand stock is the most difficult and likely to be years away, said Dr Harry Clark, the director of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.
Feeds that reduce emissions work on animals that are housed and brought feed, but they don’t work on sheep in the hills like New Zealand sheep.
Farmers’ awareness of their greenhouse gas contribution is much higher than it was 15 years ago, Clark said. But we may be running out of time, as the global focus is likely to go onto agriculture once emissions are reduced from industry, such as power plants and from cars.
New Zealand’s net greenhouse gas emissions increased 54 per cent between 1990 and 2014, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre is funded by the Government and overseas investment.
Source: http://bit.ly/2i7jKoh
