Global Research Alliance

The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) brings countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions. The NZAGRC works with MPI to lead New Zealand’s contribution to the GRA.

What is the GRA?

Climate change cannot be tackled by any one country or research institution working alone. The GRA was set up by New Zealand in 2009 to bring together the world’s best in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions research, aiming to expand knowledge in this area and accelerate the development of appropriate mitigation technologies and practices. More than 60 countries and 20 international and regional partner organisations are now involved.

The collective expertise of the GRA is used to help strengthen countries’ greenhouse gas inventories for agriculture, support their actions to achieve their agriculture commitments under the UN Paris Agreement on climate change, and encourage greater global, regional and national investment in research in these areas. There are three research groups focused on production systems (livestock, paddy rice and croplands) and an ‘integrative’ research group looking at issues that span those systems e.g. soil carbon sequestration, modelling capabilities, and national greenhouse gas inventories.

beef cattle

Beef cattle, Indonesia

The GRA is a key plank in New Zealand’s work on climate change and agriculture, offering significant opportunities to build global research and commercial partnerships and strengthen domestic capability. The New Zealand Government has had a dedicated budget to support GRA activities since 2009. This includes sponsoring the GRA Secretariat and providing funding for developing country participation as well as enabling a wide range of research and capability building activities to be undertaken. The NZAGRC has led or supported a number of these activities, playing a critical science leadership role in the GRA for over a decade.

The NZAGRC in the GRA

The NZAGRC’s GRA activities are many and varied, and include:

  1. Co-chairing the GRA’s Livestock Research Group and coordinating its programme of work, supporting its member countries and research networks, organising annual meetings, representing the LRG in the GRA Council, delivering LRG communications etc
  2. Coordinating New Zealand’s science input to the GRA’s other research groups
  3. Providing strategic advice and support to MPI, including identifying opportunities for research investment
  4. Acting as MPI’s contracting agent to initiate, contract and manage collaborative research projects, mostly led by New Zealand scientists working with international counterparts. Since 2009, over 80 research contracts have been managed by the NZAGRC in this way.
  5. Delivering regional and bilateral capability building projects with GRA countries and key partners such as the FAO, World Bank and CCAFS – primarily focused on enabling developing countries to progress to more advanced greenhouse gas inventories for livestock emissions
  6. Helping promote the work of the LRG – and the GRA more broadly – using a range of communications channels

View the New Zealand page on the GRA website for more information on the full scope of New Zealand’s services to the GRA.