Comparative energy and greenhouse gas emissions of New Zealand's and the UK's dairy industry

Abstract

This research report builds upon the AERU Research Report No. 285 on Food Miles - Comparative energy/emissions performance of New Zealand's agriculture industry (Saunders et al. 2006). This report adds greenhouse gas emissions associated with methane and nitrous oxide to the emissions associated with energy use in the food miles report. The calculations of methane and nitrous oxide emissions use the same methodology, but country specific coefficients, for both the UK and NZ as was the case for energy emissions in the original food miles report. This found that the UK had 34 per cent more emissions per kilogram of milk solids and 30 per cent more per hectare than NZ for dairy production even including the shipping to the UK. The report assumes that it is possible for the UK and other countries to supply the UK market at current cost with production to replace NZ imports. This, of course, may not be the case given limited capacity of production and different production environments.