The Environment Committee is calling for submissions on the Sustainable Biofuel Obligation Bill.

This bill would make changes to simplify the transition from liquid fossil fuels to low-emissions fuels and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

Any person or company that imports or refines more than 50,000 litres of liquid fossil fuels for transport in New Zealand would have to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of those fuels by also supplying sustainable biofuels. This would not apply to the importing of aviation fuels.

The bill would require the responsible Minister to recommend regulations setting out how biofuels would be determined to be sustainable. The bill contains provisions for criteria that the Minister would need to consider when recommending these regulations. The regulation-making powers would also allow the Minister to recommend regulations relating to certification schemes, assisting with certifying the sustainability and emissions intensity of biofuels.

The bill would also provide for:

·       flexibility mechanisms that allow obligated parties to trade emissions reductions between each other, “bank” emissions reductions into the next year, or “borrow” them from the next year. This assists the obligated parties to more easily manage small deficits or surpluses in their achievement of the emissions intensity reductions and smooth the cost of meeting the obligation between years

·       a requirement for obligated parties to report on their achievement of the emissions intensity reduction percentage annually

·       powers for the Environmental Protection Authority to monitor and enforce the new requirements, including by means of a civil pecuniary penalty for noncompliance of $800 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions not achieved. 

Submissions close on 12 January 2023.

What do you need to know?

·       Submissions are publicly released and published to the Parliament website. Only your name or organisation’s name is required on a submission. Please keep your contact details separate, as if they are included on the submission they will become publicly available when the submission is released.

·       If you wish to include information of a private or personal nature in your submission you should discuss this with the clerk of the committee before submitting.

·       If you wish to speak to your submission, please state this clearly. 

Tell the Environment Committee what you think

Make a submission on the bill via the Parliament website by 11.59pm on Thursday, 12 January 2023. 

For more details about the bill:

·       Read the full content of the bill

·       Get more details about the bill

·       What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?

·       Follow the committee’s Facebook page for updates

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