This paper explores the potential contribution to climate change mitigation resulting from the adoption of the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) mitigation scheme methodologies. CSA is an internationally recognized approach that helps guide the actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems, to effectively support sustainable development and ensure food security in a changing climate. CSA is based on principles developed in conjunction with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), so its Mitigation Scheme framework of differentiated incentivization is readily transferable across IPCC regions, without the need for radical new policy initiatives. This methodology links with an emissions trading scheme (ETS), as an incentive compatible mechanism to improve environmental outcomes. In this case the NZETS trades carbon certificates based on farm systems that effectively measure, report and ultimately verify the land user’s contribution towards the country’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs).