High-powered climate summit

That's how Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has described the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate Summit he attended in Washington D.C. last week.

The Minister was leading a small delegation to the summit which attracted ministers around 30 countries, all of whom have a vested interest in dealing with agricultural emissions.

The summit was organised by the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Before he left for the Summit, he told Dairy News that it was a rare opportunity for an international meeting of Agriculture Ministers to discuss the sustainable reduction of agricultural emissions and the ways in which they can work together to support farmers and growers across the globe to shift the dial on their emissions.

O'Connor, who spoke at the summit, says it was an opportunity to progress technology collaboration to reduce emmissions from agriculture. He says it's a joint initiative to unite member countries to increase investment and support for climate-smart agriculture and food production by 2025.

"The challenging dilemma we have is the need for ongoing food production and security while at the same time reducing emissions where possible from our production systems," he says.

O'Connor says NZ is unique becaus 48% of the emissions from our country come from our food production systems. He says he and his delegation will be listening to, and working with, any of those parties about collaborations.

"We already have strong collaboration with Ireland through the Global Research Alliance, but this US led initiative is particularly important given their position as a global food producer," he says.

O'Connor says there is the possibility of NZ developing new collaborations with other countries and maybe even some co-funding for these. He says export growth for our primary sector will depend on our sustainability credentials and says the government is focussed on working with farmers and growers to be able to demonstrate them.