ETS defenders seek 50% limit on foreign carbon credits
By Pattrick Smellie
Sept 12 (BusinessDesk) - Politicians are in for an ear-bashing from both environmentalists and foresters at select
committee hearings this morning on the need to limit New Zealand industrial carbon emitters' use of foreign-sourced
carbon credits to 50 percent of total obligations.
The push, led by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, is opposed by the large emitter
lobby, with Business New Zealand arguing any move to pump up rock-bottom prices for New Zealand Units will undermine the
"least cost" principle that drives the emissions trading scheme.
Wright, an Officer of Parliament, broke with parliamentary convention yesterday when she released a statement drawing
attention to her submission, to be presented orally at Parliament this morning, in which she described proposed
amendments to the ETS as making "a farce of our response to climate change."
The cumulative impact of the reforms proposed in the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters)
Amendment Bill would be to lock in "big polluters", as Wright called carbon-intensive industries, "to pay for only 5
percent of their emissions indefinitely."
"In such circumstances, there is no way New Zealand would reach its legislated target of a 50 percent reduction in
emissions by 2050," said Wright.
Both Wright and other submitters also called for a cap on the total number of foreign-sourced credits that could be
surrendered under the New Zealand ETS. Unlike most other countries with an ETS-style carbon pricing system, New Zealand
allows large emitters to buy as many foreign credits as it likes.
The glut of European Union emissions reduction units has dropped global carbon prices under $4 a tonne in recent weeks,
far lower than ever envisaged when the government imposed a $25 per tonne upper limit that emitters would face in the
transitional phase of the scheme, which Wright argues is now indefinitely locked in.
Also supporting the 50 percent cap on foreign credits are forestry farming submitters such as New Zealand Carbon Farming
Group, which called for New Zealand "to introduce, without delay, a cap on international carbon units of 50 percent."
"A cap … would not only deliver on the government's stated ETS objectives, but would also deliver a host of other long
term sustainable environmental, reputational and economic benefits to New Zealand," the submission from the country's
"largest supplier of post-1989 sourced carbon credits" says.
Wright's submission says "there is a balance to strike between allowing some international trade in carbon credits (so
the least cost carbon reductions can occur worldwide) and making sure that investment also contributes to creating a
domestic low carbon economy.
"New Zealand credits (NZU's) drive green growth, energy efficiency and forestry within New Zealand."
(BusinessDesk)