Submission on Climate Change Response (ETS-Forestry Conversion) Amendment Bill
The Government’s attempt to limit forestry conversions on rural land does not address the fundamental need to remove forestry from the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and is unlikely to lead to meaningful change, the Commissioner has warned in his submission on the Climate Change Response (ETS – Forestry Conversion) Amendment Bill.
“The proposals address a symptom, rather than the root cause and will not enhance the credibility of the NZ ETS which needs much deeper reform,” he says.
He warns that not only is the solution proposed complex and bureaucratic, is it also based on the outdated LUC land use classification tool which is no longer fit for purpose.
“The LUC system does not have sufficient resolution to be used as a regulatory tool at the property level, meaning that some farmers will unnecessarily face more restrictions than others,” he cautions.
The Commissioner is calling again for forestry offsets to be phased out of the NZ ETS and instead to be made available to farmers through a new biogenic methane ETS.