The government in New Zealand attempts to examine what is cheaper, to increase forest planting locally or buy foreign carbon credits, in order to meet New Zealand’s climate change targets. Continue reading!
New Zealand committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. NZ may achieve such ambitious target by using a combination of local emissions reductions, storing carbon in forests and buying international carbon credits.
Paula Bennett, Climate Change Minister, told at the Climate Change and Business Conference in Auckland:
“Forestry is so important because it’s our most important source of domestic emission removals”
Currently there is debate what option is cheper for NZ to reduce GHG emissions. Mrs Bennett added:
“If forestry is cheaper than buying international units, and we think it might be, there is a strong economic case for planting more trees. For example: investing in 10,000 hectares of forestry in 2018 will deliver 3.1 million tonnes of abatement over the 2020s, of the 235 million in total we need to reach our 2030 target. This could reduce the number of units we’ll need to purchase internationally. A key focus of the ETS review is looking at how to promote more planting by ensuring there is a good price incentive to plant trees, but we are looking wider than this.”
By planting more forests NZ may increase the supply of carbon credits into the country’s emissions trading scheme in the 2020s. Good calculations will reveal soon what is cheaper. Nevertheless, Mrs Bennett pointed that forestry also offers environmental and economic benefits beyond their impact on climate change and that forestry policy will include encouragement for permanent and native forestry, as well as what Environmental Defence Society head Gary Taylor called “pinus radiata syndrome.”