increase font size
The Labour Party is planning to introduce an amendment to the Government's emissions trading bill when it goes through the committee stages in Parliament in the next week or so.
The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and other Matters) Amendment Bill passed its second reading a couple of weeks ago. During the committee stages the bill will be debated clause by clause and that's when Labour's spokesperson, Moana Mackey, will introduce an amendment aimed at forcing greenhouse gas emitters to buy at least half their carbon credits within New Zealand. At present they can source all their carbon credits from overseas and this has drawn sharp criticism from local forestry groups.
Mackey claims her amendment won't necessarily push up the price of carbon credits, but it will bring New Zealand into line with what's happening in Australia and Europe in regard to carbon credit policy. She believes it will also bring stability to the forestry sector and she's lobbying United Future's Peter Dunne to support her amendment.
"When Labour put in the ETS we had incentives for forestry planting but this is not happening now and we are not seeing any new plantings. It takes a couple of years to secure the investment for forestry and three or four years for the trees to start sequestering carbon at meaningful rates. We need to be planning and planting forests right now."
Meanwhile, there is speculation New Zealand will not sign up to the second round of commitment to the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. It's understood a Cabinet paper on this has been prepared, but no discussion or decision has been taken. This lines up with the Government concerns about the effects of such a commitment on New Zealand's primary sector.
Even if New Zealand were not to sign the next Kyoto 'commitment' it would still remain a party to the protocol and meet other obligations, primarily in relation to the comprehensive reporting of our greenhouse gas emissions.
- By Peter Burke
A new nationwide survey shows New Zealanders expect farmers and food producers to play a leading role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but also gave them higher marks than most industries for their current efforts.
OPINION: We are endlessly told that livestock are responsible for half of New Zealand's total emissions.
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts started after their disastrous Covid response; now trying to undermine the Covid inquiry to protect his own backside.
OPINION: Climate change is shaping up to be one of the major issues at next year's general election.
Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton says while New Zealand needs more housing, sacrificing our best farmland to get there is not the answer.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.
