General obligations
While the applications for allocation of emission units derived from sinks could be voluntary, New Zealand has a mandatory obligation to report and to account for increases and decreases in carbon stock. This national obligation could be accounted for through the placement of the point of obligation. 'Point of obligation' is the term used to identify the person or organisation (such as a business) that has a legal responsibility to monitor and report emissions and, at the end of each reporting period, to hold and retire a quantity of emission units equal to emissions.
Points of obligation or 'responsible parties' for forestry emissions would have the same obligations imposed on them as would emitters in other sectors. In addition, forestry points of obligation would be required to measure, report and verify carbon sequestration in order to claim emission units. The detail of general obligations to be placed on a point of obligation for forestry would be provided in regulations. For example, points of obligation would be required to:
- register with the national registry and hold an account for emission units with sufficient emission units to cover their emissions over the period
- verify and accurately report emissions and sequestrations to the national inventory in accordance with rules established in regulation
- disclose information for effective compliance.
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