Catalyst: Strategic – New Zealand-China joint research partnerships 2025

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and a large portion of it comes from the digestive systems of ruminant animals like cattle, sheep, and deer. These animals are vital to agriculture in both NZ and China, but they also contribute significantly to climate change. Reducing methane emissions from livestock is therefore an urgent challenge that has both environmental and economic importance globally.

This collaborative research project between AgResearch in NZ and Yangzhou University in China aims to develop a new feed additive formulation to help address this challenge. The focus of the project is to improve how the active ingredient in the additive is delivered to the rumen, where methane is produced. Current technologies face challenges with how the additive disperses inside the animal, limiting its overall effectiveness. This project will develop and refine a novel formulation that allows the active ingredient to spread more evenly and efficiently. As a result, it is expected that lower doses will be needed to achieve meaningful methane reductions.

The first phase of the work will involve fine-tuning the new formulation to ensure it is stable, safe, and effective. Laboratory-based trials will then be carried out to test how the formulation performs in reducing methane under controlled conditions. These trials will also help the team understand the mode of action and confirm the additive’s safety for animals and food quality.

Promising versions of the additive will then be trialled in China using specialised equipment that accurately measures methane emissions. Finally, the additive will be tested on working farms to ensure that it is practical, safe, and effective in everyday farming conditions.

The goal is to deliver a safe, easy-to-use, and effective product that can reduce methane emissions from livestock by at least 30%. This research supports climate-resilient agriculture and contributes to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also strengthens scientific cooperation between NZ and China in addressing a shared environmental challenge.

For public or media enquiries, please contact: Dr Xuezhao Sun, Bioeconomy Science Institute, AgResearch Group. Email: xuezhao.sun@agresearch.co.nz

New Zealand has committed to bold action on climate change, aiming to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. One essential solution is carbon capture and storage, a technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from sources like power stations and locks them safely away in deep underground rock formations.

This research focuses on one of Aotearoa’s largest single sources of emissions: the Huntly Power Station. While coal-fired, Huntly remains vital to our electricity grid, providing backup during dry years and when renewable supply is low. If we can capture and store Huntly’s CO₂, we can retain energy security while eliminating its climate impact. But a major challenge stands in the way–captured CO₂ from coal isn’t pure. This impure CO₂ contains gases like nitrogen and oxygen, which can change how it moves, reacts, and gets trapped underground. Most global research and guidelines are based on pure CO₂, leaving a critical knowledge gap.

This project will close that gap. In collaboration with Chinese experts, we will use advanced lab experiments, field data, and numerical modelling to understand how impure CO₂ interacts with underground rock and water under real-world conditions. We will assess the Hamilton Basin as a potential storage site. With deep reservoirs, low seismic risk, and proximity to Huntly, it could offer a safe, cost-effective option for CO₂ storage.

The project will deliver practical tools and guidelines tailored to New Zealand’s geology and energy system, helping government and industry make informed decisions. Our research will consider mātauranga Māori to ensure climate solutions reflect values of kaitiakitanga and intergenerational wellbeing through environmental stewardship.

Exposure to sea level rise threatens areas of productive and heavily utilized land globally. Managed retreat from low-lying coastal areas and floodplains is acknowledged as one of the most promising long-term adaptation strategies and, in turn, a generational opportunity for wetland restoration. Despite the United Nations Decade of Restoration recognizing this opportunity, restoration remains prevented by a social-ecological trap where managed retreat is primarily seen as a loss of landowner wealth and reinforces existing land uses. As a result, the substantial and varied ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands and their value for long-term climate adaptation are still under-considered by local stakeholders.

This research project aims to drive a step change in “wetland restoration for adaptation” by laying the foundations for future wetland economies, creating a virtuous social-ecological feedback loop whereby the value of lowland wetland ecosystem services are realised (economically) and drive landowner-driven conversion to help address SLR challenges. The project will: i) bring together a diverse group of wetland expertise to evaluate a comprehensive inventory of coastal wetland ecosystem services as well as their scope for enhancement; ii) evaluate the limitations and opportunities for developing markets for future wetland economies, and; iii) identify future opportunities through nature-based solutions for enhancing targeted ecosystem services towards ambitious climate adaptation strategies.

This project builds on existing Cawthron Institute-led research that identifies barriers to lowland aquatic restoration and highlights potential leverage points (social-ecological feedbacks) that could enable upscaled restoration. The Chinese Institute for Forestry, namely Professor Lijuan Cui’s coastal wetlands restoration group, are world leaders in wetland functional processes and restoration. The international collaboration between the two groups allows the integration of cutting-edge wetland functional knowledge in a novel social-ecological framework. The study also provides an alternative, bottom-up driven, restoration process to the contemporary top-down driven restoration approaches which can be compared in two contrasting yet complementary study regions

To combat climate change, countries like New Zealand and China are aiming to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shift towards renewable energy. One promising way to support this transition is to capture carbon dioxide (CO2)—a major contributor to global warming—and convert it into useful fuels and chemicals using clean electricity.

This project aims to develop a new, energy-efficient method that directly converts captured CO2 into products like ethylene and ethanol. These are important building blocks used in fuel, plastics, and other everyday materials. Traditionally, CO2 is first separated from air or industrial gases using chemical solvents, and then processed in a separate system to make these products. However, this traditional method is expensive and uses a lot of energy.

Our approach combines CO2 capture and conversion into a single process. We plan to use special molecules, called amines, to absorb CO2. These absorbed forms—called carbamates—will be directly transformed into valuable products using electricity. This would avoid the need for costly CO2 separation and make the process much more efficient. We will use computer models to identify the best amine molecules for capturing CO2, and to design catalysts (materials that speed up chemical reactions) that can turn the captured CO2 into useful chemicals. Our partners at Tianjin University in China will carry out laboratory testing of the most promising combinations to build and test small-scale devices. The ultimate goal is to develop a new type of CO2 electrolyser that is cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

This project has the potential to create a step-change in how CO2 is handled—turning it from a waste product into a resource. It supports global carbon reduction goals, especially in countries rich in renewable electricity like New Zealand. It also helps address energy storage and transport challenges, which are critical for building a sustainable future. The collaboration between researchers in New Zealand and China not only combines different strengths—computational design and laboratory innovation but also builds a strong foundation for future joint research in clean energy technologies.