Forestry in a New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme
Ministerial Foreword
Forestry and forests are vital to New Zealand’s economy, environment, and culture. They are also vital to how New Zealand responds to the challenges of climate change. Moreover, forests and forestry can help New Zealand to become a truly sustainable country.
Bringing forestry into an economy-wide Emissions Trading Scheme is a key part of ensuring forests can play their rightful place in sustainable land management.
The Government wants to see a vibrant, internationally competitive and innovative forestry sector. We want more forests on vulnerable hill country to protect our soils, waterways and communities from floods and erosion. We want forestry to help mitigate climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And we want to encourage the use of wood products to substitute for energy-intensive materials such as concrete, steel and aluminium and bioenergy to provide a renewable climate-friendly energy source.
In December 2006 the Government released a discussion document, Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change: Options for a Plan of Action. We received hundreds of submissions and comments on the ideas in that paper. Key themes from the feedback were that people wanted to see all sectors of the economy playing their part to address climate change. Foresters, in particular, also wanted the opportunity to benefit from the positive contribution they make to mitigating the effects of climate change. Maintaining land use flexibility and fairness were also seen as vital.
Having considered this feedback, we have decided, in principle, to pursue an economy-wide emissions trading scheme. When combined with a package of complementary measures, we believe this provides the most flexible, fairest and comprehensive approach to addressing many of the challenges that climate change presents. It allows for things such as flexibility in land use change, while ensuring decision makers consider the true costs, including to the environment, of their actions. It also allows foresters to capitalise on the business opportunities climate change provides. We also propose a major package of financial assistance to those forest owners adversely affected by the new deforestation measures.
Throughout September and October, the Government will be engaging across the country with communities, industry, local government and Māori on the measures outlined in this paper and other actions we can take to complement the Emissions Trading Scheme.
We recognise that not everyone will agree with the framework the Government proposes to adopt. However, we also recognise that bringing forestry into an emissions trading scheme provides significant new opportunities for many foresters and landowners.
This heralds an important evolution of sustainable land management in New Zealand to protect our long-term productive capacity.
Hon Jim Anderton |
Hon David Parker |
Contact for Enquiries
Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change
MAF
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 CLIMATE (254 628)
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