Views sought on additional proposals for the ETS Forestry Regulations
Te Uru Rākau - Forestry New Zealand is seeking feedback on proposed amendments to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Forestry Regulations that it hopes will encourage new planting of both indigenous and exotic forest.
These latest proposals follow an initial round of public consultation on amendments that was held from November 2019 to January 2020.
Director Forestry and Land Management Oliver Hendrickson says Te Uru Rākau has been considering feedback and worked with forestry experts to refine the proposals relating to the approach to carbon accounting for forestry.
He says Te Uru Rākau was keen to understand how people felt about the trade-offs and likely impacts of various options for how averaging accounting will work in terms of the flexibility they offer participants versus how complex they are.
Mr Hendrickson says 333, 000 hectares of land were currently registered in the ETS, for which around 6.9 million carbon credits were claimed last year. This is equivalent to the carbon emissions from approximately 2.3 million cars in a year.
"The ETS plays an important part in helping New Zealand meet its international climate change obligations so it's important that we take the time to get feedback and ensure people understand the changes we are trying to make."
The deadline for submissions on these proposals is 5pm on Friday, 9 April 2021.