Emissions scheme must be effective and fair, say Greens

The Green Party has set out this morning the questions that must be asked of the Government's new carbon emissions trading scheme, expected shortly.

“The Greens don’t believe a full emissions trading scheme is a sensible way for New Zealand to go at this stage as it will be very complex to implement and highly politically contentious,” Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says. “That's why this year we put forward a proposal for a simpler and more effective scheme; but it seems Government is wedded to full emissions trading.

“The Greens will be judging the Government’s scheme on two principles: effectiveness for the climate and fairness. It is important to ask where the money will go. It is inevitable the price of energy, particularly fuel, will go up - there is no other way to put a price on carbon and incentivise the changes we need, but the issue is, who gets that money? The risk is that it will be captured by speculators and those who clip the ticket, neither of whom do anything for the climate.

“If the scheme is fair, it will set up a transparent ring fenced fund to put that money into carbon reduction programmes and assistance to those who are most vulnerable, whether they are businesses, communities or individuals. It could build better public transport, help with car pooling schemes, provide information to households, insulate homes, invest in renewable energy and provide incentives to business to invest in more efficient equipment.

“For the scheme to be effective in reducing our impact on the climate, there must be a cap on the total allowable emissions, under which we trade. But we are already part of an emissions trading scheme, with a cap - it's called Kyoto, and we should link our scheme to that. If we set a different cap for domestic trading our carbon units will be some kind of local monopoly money and not acceptable in the Kyoto market. There will also be few people to trade with.”

The scheme must also engage ordinary kiwis to help them understand their carbon footprint and be rewarded for reducing it. Climate change cannot be solved by governments alone, Ms Fitzsimons says.

“Taxpayers will be waiting to see how much longer they are expected to subsidise the dairy industry. It is responsible for around 30 percent of our emissions and this is growing very fast. The taxpayer should not be expected to bear this cost, especially as the industry is hugely profitable.

“The forestry industry must be given incentives to stop clearing of forests and start planting again. If foresters do not receive some carbon benefit from their trees we will all end up paying the Kyoto cost.”