NZ Emissions Trading: Farmers get ‘generous’ treatment under ETS scheme
October 19th, 2009
Changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme, delaying the inclusion of agriculture by two years, reflect Climate Change Minister Nick Smith’s belief the primary sector deserves “relatively generous” support, given its importance to the NZ economy. Papers released by his office show Smith argued putting too onerous a burden on farming will simply displace production to other countries, where farming may be less efficient. Bigger polluters will receive the most assistance by way of carbon units because they’ll suffer more from the scheme.
The two-year delay to 2015, putting NZ in step with Aust, will cost $573m. By 2030, agriculture will be $1.58bn better off after moving to an intensity-based allocation system for carbon units. The changes “modestly” disadvantage farms producing less greenhouse gas emissions and won’t be entitled to a free allocation of carbon units. Smith says assistance has to be tightly targeted at those with the highest emissions. Federated Farmers says it hasn’t abandoned efforts to get farming removed altogether from the ETS, but this remains a tall order given the sector accounts for almost 50% of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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