Wellington - New Zealand farmers, who are among the world's
biggest producers of meat and dairy products, said Saturday they
would switch to crops like bananas and pineapples if global warming
destroyed the temperate climate that grows the rich pasture their
cattle thrive on.
Farmers would manage changing climatic conditions, which local
experts predict would raise temperatures over the top half of the
North Island and produce more droughts on the east coast of the South
Island, Frank Brenmuhl, chairman of Dairy Farmers of New Zealand,
told Radio New Zealand.
He said the issue for New Zealand is not a lack of water, but
managing water resources more effectively and storing more of it in
lakes.
Brenmuhl was commenting on the report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Friday, which said without
a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, global warming
will produce catastrophic increases in world temperatures, more
droughts and rising seas.
Although New Zealand has just 0.06 per cent of the world's
population, it produces 0.2 per cent of global greenhouse gases,
nearly half from the methane expelled by farm animals.
Peter Neilson, chief executive of the New Zealand Business Council
for Sustainable Development, said climate change could benefit the
country and provide an exciting opportunity by encouraging
innovation.
Neilson said leading edge research into that area was already
being conducted, including a world-first breakthrough using sewage
pond algae to produce bio fuel and development of a process to turn
gas emissions from some major industrial processes into bio fuels for
the airline industry.
'Each of these has the potential to earn billions globally, and
position New Zealand as a climate change management leader, and
protect and improve our trade position,' Neilson said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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