Price on carbon key to a sustainable future
The Government’s failure to place a price on agriculture emissions, as recommended by Ministry for the Environment
officials, is hurting New Zealand’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and also hurting farmers who must plan for the
future, the Green Party said today.
Carbon News has today released information gained through an OIA that shows the Ministry for the Environment officials
advised the Government to include agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) when it is reviewed later this year.
“National’s apparent attempt to protect farmers now will only hurt them in the long run. Farmers and businesses rely on
price predictability. If they don’t have a carbon price they can rely on, it actually makes it very difficult to plan
five, ten, twenty years into the future,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.
“It’s up to the Government to make the conditions right for this transition. Without a reliable plan to bring
agriculture into the ETS, businesses will continue to delay investing in the transition – but will then face steep costs
in the future when they do come in.
“There’s some very encouraging early research that shows that agriculture can both dramatically reduce emissions and
increase profitability by focusing on productivity measures, rather than just growth of milk production.
“New Zealand should aim to future-proof the industry and be more productive in a low-emissions environment, rather than
churning out as much low-value commodity milk powder as we possibly can.
“If New Zealand is serious about playing its part in the global effort to reduce emissions, the National Government
can’t keep using agriculture as an excuse. The Green Party has released a plan showing how New Zealand can reduce its
emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030 – even giving agriculture a five year lead-in time to allow
them to invest in the transition.
“The ETS review is an opportunity to put in place a proper regime that actually achieves the objective that the ETS was
originally supposed to achieve – reducing emissions. Under its watered down version of the ETS, the National Government
has set the price of carbon so low that it has actually been encouraging businesses to continue to pollute.
“The ETS isn’t working and should be replaced with a transparent and predictable carbon tax – one that ensures industry
pays a fair price for its emissions and recycles the revenue back to families and small businesses in the form of a tax
cut,” said Mr. Shaw.
ENDS