Businesses seek Negotiated Greenhouse Agreements

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Hon Pete Hodgson today announced that the Government would enter negotiations with four New Zealand companies for Negotiated Greenhouse Agreements, a key element of New Zealand's climate change policy.
The companies are glass container manufacturer ACI Glass, Kawerau paper mill operator Norske Skog Tasman and gold mining companies Newmont Waihi and GRD Macraes. Helen Clark announced the agreement to negotiate while visiting the Auckland premises of ACI Glass to present an award for employees achieving level one national certificate in glass container manufacturing.

A Negotiated Greenhouse Agreement (NGA) is a binding agreement between a firm and the Government that commits the firm to moving towards world's best practice in managing greenhouse gas emissions. In return the Government provides a full or partial exemption for the firm from the emissions charge that is to be introduced by 2008. NGAs are limited to firms or industries whose international competitiveness would be at risk from an emissions charge.
"The commencement of negotiations for these NGAs is a significant step in the implementation of climate change policy, which is designed to enable New Zealand to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol," said the Convenor of the Ministerial Group on Climate Change, Pete Hodgson.

"NGAs will constrain greenhouse gas emissions while protecting the international competitiveness of New Zealand businesses. They encourage businesses to pursue the economic and environmental advantages of best practice in emissions management."
Earlier this year the Government signed New Zealand’s first NGA with the New Zealand Refining Company, which runs New Zealand's only oil refinery.
The New Zealand Climate Change Office at the Ministry for the Environment takes applications from firms seeking NGAs and assesses their eligibility and priority. Negotiations with other firms are likely to begin early next year.

Company information

ACI Glass Packaging manufactures glass containers for the New Zealand beer, wine and food industries. It is a subsidiary of Melbourne-based ACI Packaging, which is an affiliate of United States-based Owens-Illinois Inc. ACI Glass Packaging is New Zealand's only glass container manufacturer and recycles 80,000 tonnes of glass a year. http://www.acipackaging.com Norske Skog Tasman operates a paper mill in the Bay of Plenty at Kawerau. The mill is one of more than twenty owned worldwide by Norske Skog, a Norwegian company that specialises in producing newsprint. The Norske Skog Tasman mill produces newsprint and supplies all of the New Zealand market, with additional production going to Australia, Asia and the Pacific Islands. http://www.norske-skog.com

Newmont Waihi operates the Martha open pit gold mine in Waihi, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, based in Denver, USA. http://www.newmont.com http://www.marthamine.co.nz

GRD Macraes GRD Macraes is New Zealand's largest gold producer. It operates the large opencast Macraes Gold Mine in East Otago, producing more than 170,000 ounces of gold a year. It has plans to develop another opencast mine at Reefton on the West Coast and extend the current operation at Macraes. http://www.grd.com.au

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