• Climate Change
• Legislation & regulations
• Forestry emissions trading scheme
• Other sustainable forestry initiatives
• Agriculture emissions trading scheme
• Sustainable land management
• Staying informed
• Background reports & analysis
• Previous consultation & background information

Legislation and Regulations

Legislation

The Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preferences) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament and had its first reading in December 2007. The Bill has been referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee, which is currently hearing submissions.

To read the Bill itself or for more information, including explanatory fact sheets and an officials reports that describes the approach the government has taken on a number of important issues, go to www.climatechange.govt.nz and follow the links.

The legislation includes default provisions for all sectors, because an essential principal of the design of the ETS is that it applies fairly across all sectors and to all greenhouse gases and that there is legislative certainty to all sectors that they will, in the absence of further legislative action, be covered by the Scheme. The government believes that it is important that the forestry sector - which is entering the Scheme early - has the assurance that they will not be alone in having obligations under the Scheme.

However, there remain some important issues upon which the government has yet to make final decisions, and the government has made a commitment to ongoing engagement with stakeholders on these matters. For agriculture, these include the point of obligation, minimum thresholds to participate in the scheme, and the method of allocating free emission units to the sector. For forestry, the government is still considering proposals from both Maori and/or the Leadership group covering issues such as options for allocation of units and the inclusion of pre-1990 indigenous forest in the ETS.

While some preferred options have been identified, the government has an open mind on these and is committed to fully engaging on these issues over the next year.

A joint industry/government partnership "Peak Group" has a key role in representing stakeholders' views as well as in building a partnership with the sector in order to respond to the challenges of climate change. A separate Technical Working Group will be established on the agricultural component of the NZ ETS and will report its findings in October 2008.

Regulations

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has released for consultation an exposure draft of the regulations for the forestry sector under the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). These exposure draft regulations, which apply to both pre-1990 and post-1989 forests, will help give effect to the forestry components of the scheme. They provide an update of the exposure draft regulations released on 13 February 2008 as part of the Select Committee process to inform submitters on the Bill (see Legislation section above). Submissions close on 13 June 2008.

Information about how to make a submission and a submission form are included in the commentary and regulations pages.

Releasing updated draft regulations [285K PDF] and commentary [127K PDF] at this time, ahead of decisions by Parliament on the Bill, will provide forest owners with the information they need to provide feedback on the proposals. However, the forestry regulations may change due to changes in the Bill and as a result of feedback from the consultation process.

The draft forestry regulations contain provisions for:

• Fees and charges: a power to collect fees and charges. Please refer to pages 6 to 10 of the commentary or to the draft regulations for more information.
• Land status notification: a process by which the Chief Executive (CE) will notify the Registrar-General of Land, the Registrar of Deeds or Registrar of the Maori Land Court of the status of pre-1990 and post-1989 forest land and exempt land. Please refer to the commentary (pages 11 and 12) or the draft regulations for more information
• Carbon assessment methodology: information to be collected by participants and submitted with an emissions return and a prescribed method for calculating emissions and removals. Please refer to the commentary (pages 12 to 19).
• Mapping requirements for exemptions for pre-1990 forest: information to be provided with an application for a pre-1990 forest exemption.

We would also like views on the business impacts and practicalities of the proposed regulations as they relate to forest holdings.

Contact for Enquiries

Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change
MAF
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 CLIMATE (254 628)
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