Baldock: Tree planting a ‘no regrets’ Kyoto move

There should be subsidies to promote planting of native trees along and around New Zealand’s waterways, rivers and lakes as a “no regrets” way to comply with the nation’s Kyoto carbon emission target, United Future environment spokesman Larry Baldock said today.

“While United Future has consistently opposed joining Kyoto ahead of our major trading partners and opposes a carbon tax, this would be a practical no-regrets type policy to address the situation,” he said.

“Not only does it enable us to gain more carbon credits, but would do masses for the water quality in our lakes and rivers.

“A riparian strip of bush would be the best method of filtering the run-off from agricultural land and the effluent from animals that is contributing to the high percentage of nitrate in our waters,” Mr Baldock said.

He said United Future would be working on amendments to the Climate Change Amendment Bill that would allow the benefit of carbon credits to be given to private landowners to plant trees, said Mr Baldock.

“It makes a lot more sense than taxing our economy and contributing to inflation. And it’s common sense conservation at work,” he said.

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