Can The Govt Get All Climate Change Objectives In Line?
August 20th, 2009
The Govt is struggling to get all its climate change objectives into a row. The forestry sector could ease pressures on NZ’s greenhouse gas liabilities if it gets the right incentives but is in an uproar over proposals to put a cap on the value of carbon credits and to limit trading to the domestic market. The Govt wants to align the emissions trading scheme with Aust’s but the Rudd Govt’s legislation suffered a defeat in the Senate. Cabinet papers released this week showed the Govt chose a harder target for 2020 emission reductions than proposed by Treasury which said the 10 to 20% range would incur costs significantly greater than those faced by other developed countries which have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol. The Govt does not seem to have cross-party support for amending current ETS legislation. Unless the scheme is modified, NZ puts itself out ahead of the rest of the world. The Govt may be banking on this threat to pull other parties into line behind amendments which would limit the economic damage the ETS in its present form would cause.
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Duncan Cotterill