Emissions Trading Scheme Submissions

On 17 September 2021 LCANZI members James Every-Palmer QC, Emma Geard, Jeremy Bell-Connell and Ollie Belton made two submissions on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The first submission was on ‘designing a governance framework for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.’ This submission confirms that a well-designed governance framework for the New Zealand ETS has significant potential to improve the effectiveness of the ETS contributing to New Zealand’s decarbonising efforts. The submission emphasises that the ETS does not currently create a cap on our national emissions and supports the creation of an independent Carbon Markets Authority to have stewardship of the ETS and a mandate to address matters such as whether agriculture should be brought within the ETS, how the massive stockpile of units can be addressed and whether the free allocation of units to emission intensive industries should be abolished.

The second submission was on ‘reforming industrial allocation in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme’. This submission urges the government to use the ETS as an effective tool to respond to climate change. The submission considers that the policy of free allocation does more harm than good and that it should be phased out rapidly and replaced with a carbon border adjustment mechanism.