24 June 2011

The panel reviewing the Emissions Trading Scheme says that it has considered measures that reward farmers with carbon credits for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But chairman David Caygill won’t say what conclusion it came to, Carbon News (www.carbonnews.co.nz) reports today.

The review panel will submit its final report to Climate Change Issues Minister Nick Smith next week..

Caygill told Carbon News, the country's specialist information service on the carbon markets, that if, how and when agriculture should be part of the scheme is addressed in the report, and that the panel spent considerable time looking at whether the sector should be given incentives to cut emissions.

Last week, Carbon News reported a recommendation by a carbon consultant that the Government should be using a carrot, rather than a stick, to drive agricultural emissions down.

Under the current scheme, emitters must either pay a tax or surrender carbon credits to account for their emissions.

Agricultural emissions make up nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas profile, and the sector is scheduled to enter the ETS in 2015.

But Beyond Carbon’s Lizzie Chambers says that, at least in the short-term, farmers should be incentivised to cut emissions through measures such as the Joint Implementation Scheme, which produce tradable carbon credits.

Caygill says that Chambers was not the only person to make such a recommendation to the review panel.

“Several submitters said what about bringing agriculture in on a voluntary basis, allowing them to qualify for carbon credits,” he said.

“Another refinement would be that you can qualify for credits on a net basis, so that you will be judged on your emissions, but only if you ask to be.”

The panel did not, however, consider whether food production should be shifted to an intensity basis, in which the sector would be held accountable for the level of emissions per unit of food produced, rather than for its overall level of emissions.

The report will be given to Climate Change Minister Nick Smith next week, and is expected to go the Cabinet before being publicly released.

ENDS

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