Claytons Emissions Trading Scheme Will Cost New Zealand Tax Payers.
Media Release
Kyoto Forestry Association
September 22nd 2012
Proposed amendments to the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill will do nothing
to stop the flood of cheap international carbon credits into New Zealand.
Roger Dickie from the Kyoto Forestry Association says the Governments proposed amendments to the ETS Bill will result in
New Zealand having a sham Emissions Trading Scheme that does nothing to encourage emissions reduction or improved
environmental standards.
The National Government came into power endorsing the ETS as New Zealand's primary climate change response tool. To be
seen to be internationally credible New Zealand needs to use this tool to transition to a lower emissions domestic
economy.
Instead the Government proposes to rely on the very cheapest imported credits to offset our emissions. This does nothing
to reduce our emissions. To make matters worse the government expects taxpayers to continue to subsidise emitters beyond
2012 by retaining the 2 for 1 subsidy said Mr Dickie.
No other emissions trading scheme in the world allows 100% "low quality" CER, ERU and RMU units into their Emissions
Trading Scheme. Russia has announced that it may release more than 300 million tonne of the low quality ERUs into the
world market, this has the potential to further reduce the price. (The New Zealand market is around 16 million tonne per
annum).
Australia, China, USA, European Union, Japan and Korea either ban these low quality units or permit them in very limited
numbers.
Because we have allowed unfettered entry of these cheap units into New Zealand, our carbon market has collapsed with
prices now below $3.00.
Some two or three election cycles from now the New Zealand taxpayer will be forced to pay out $hundreds of millions of
dollars to meet our international carbon liabilities thanks to the irresponsible "head in the sand" attitude proposed by
the National government.
Because of this there has been a total loss of confidence in new forest planting, with a net deforestation of 18,600 ha
in the 2011 year. This is completely contrary to the intentions of ETS.
Mr Dickie said when National came to power in 2007 they promised
to encourage the planting of 600,000 to 800,000 hectares of hill country
land that is prone to erosion and is not currently forested (see
Politicians from all political parties have regularly agreed that New Zealand needs 20,000 ha of new planting each year
to meet our emissions targets and to counter the harvest of mature trees forecast to begin in the next six to eight
years.
Mr Dickie said New Zealanders must be getting sick of politicians lying to the public just to secure votes. John Keys
national government must be the most environmentally unfriendly government New Zealand has ever seen. They lied to the
New Zealand public about their intentions to sequester carbon by planting forests and now they expect every New Zealand
tax payer to subsidise our corporate emitters. Even their own Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment described
their proposed changes to the ETS as a "farce"
Mr Dickie said there is zero interest from foresters and investors in new planting at these artificial low carbon prices
subsidised by the New Zealand taxpayer.
END
KFA represents the more than 30,000 ordinary New Zealanders and forestry
companies who risked as much as $175 million per annum of their own
capital to invest in more than 250,000 hectares of new forestry in the
1990s, both because of the benefits predicted to arise from the sale of
wood products and for the carbon credits earned from carbon
sequestration.