New Zealand government delays ETS forestry reporting

Thursday 18th June 2009

Delays in establishing an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in New Zealand have forced the government to allow more time for ETS reporting on forestry, although the sector is still be subject to the scheme from the start date of January 2008.

Forest owners will have until January 31, 2010, a year later than envisaged, to start reporting their emissions profile, frustrating a sector that has been dogged by delays to the scheme.

"It's a shambles," said Denis Hocking, climate change spokesman for the Farm Forest Owners Association. The delays were discouraging forest plantation on marginal and eroded land which would benefit environmentally from any commercial incentive to plant that an ETS created, he said.

Any reduction in demand for forestation would also be likely to reduce demand for New Zealand carbon credits, which are only likely to be attractive to domestic buyers, since the credits will not have the internationally tradeable status of Kyoto-compliant units known as AAU's.

Delays in decisions on how to apply the ETS to forestry had contributed already to substantial wasted effort, said David Rhodes of the New Zealand Forest Owners Association.

Some nurseries had failed after gearing up for a surge in planting that hadn't eventuated and seedlings had been ploughed back into the ground.

Businesswire.co.nz

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