ghg-inventory-1990-2013

Recalculations approved for the 2015 Inventory submission in
the Agriculture sector
New Zealand has made a number of improvements in its 2015 annual submission, arising
from the changes recommended by the Agriculture Inventory Advisory Panel and a
number of corrections and improvements to its modelling. New Zealand has also ensured
that its submission meets the IPCC (2006) guidelines and has updated the default
emission factors and parameters whose values have changed in its modelling.
The 2014 Agriculture Inventory Advisory Panel agreed to two changes to the Inventory
methodology for the 2015 annual submission:
the country-specific N 2 O emission factor for urea fertiliser has been amended from
0.01 to 0.0048 (the emission factor for non-urea synthetic fertiliser remains 0.01);
and
the parameters for calculating nitrogen retention in cattle milk and deer velvet have
been reduced, and the parameter for sheep wool was verified and remains unchanged.
Two additional changes were presented to the 2014 Agriculture Inventory Advisory Panel
as information papers:
Changes to the reporting in the Agriculture Inventory in line with the UNFCCC
Conference of the Parties decision (15/CP17) that from the 2015 submission onwards
the annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory must meet the requirements stipulated in the
IPCC (2006) guidelines.
The implementation of the IPCC (2006) method to update the methodology for
calculating methane emissions from dairy shed effluent ponds.
New Zealand has included additional data and reporting and has updated the modelling in
line with the requirement to meet IPCC (2006) guidelines:
Units have been changed from Gg to kt in the 2015 Inventory submission.
The emission factors for horse, mules and asses, and poultry (other) and the emission
factor for manure management of goats have been changed to IPCC (2006) default
values.
Emission from camelids (alpaca and llama) are now reported under the ‘Camels’
category (there are no Middle-Eastern camels in New Zealand).
N 2 O emissions from manure management are reported by livestock category.
A report to investigate activity data for application of non-manure organic N fertiliser
on agricultural land has been commissioned and produced (van der Weerden et al,
2014). The report found that this is not a significant activity in New Zealand. A small
quantity of sewerage sludge applied to agricultural land continues to be reported
under the Waste sector.
Indirect N 2 O emissions are now calculated for Manure management and Agricultural
soils categories.
A report has been produced on pasture renewal (Thomas et al, 2014) and this activity
is now included under the calculation for N 2 O released from crop residues.
The proportion of synthetic fertiliser that is applied as urea has been calculated using
annual synthetic fertiliser N sales figures from the Fertiliser Association of
New Zealand, a non-government industry-representative organisation, which are
adjusted using the proportion of urea fertiliser reported on the International Fertilizer
Industry Association. These data are used to meet the new requirement to report
CO 2 emissions from urea fertiliser, and to calculate N 2 O emissions from urea and
New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2013 135