Smith backs trees to offset emissions

BY JON MORGAN

Last updated 05:00 20/11/2009

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The case for planting trees to offset the cost of the emissions trading scheme will get stronger in time, Environment Minister Nick Smith says.

The Government estimates that the cost of stock's emissions of nitrous oxide and methane in 2030 will be about $3000 a farmer.

Speaking to Federated farmers' national council meeting in Wellington yesterday, Dr Smith said many sheep and beef farmers could offset this by planting trees now.

They had unproductive areas that could be planted in trees to more than offset their stock emissions.

However, he was told by Gisborne farmer Jeanette Maxwell that planting trees was fine, but when they were felled years later, under the ETS their owners would face a penalty.

Dr Smith said the Government was working to have the Kyoto protocol rule on paying for the carbon released at harvest softened during the agreement's second commitment period after 2012.

Kyoto protocol rules laid down when it was signed in 1997 stated that when trees were harvested 100 per cent of their carbon was returned to the atmosphere.

"We know that's not true," Dr Smith said. "They couldn't work out a system to trace every piece of timber that might be produced."

If New Zealand could get a change to this rule, reducing the allowance for the amount of carbon released to a half or a quarter, it would have a "very substantive" effect on the economics of planting trees. Planting the trees would also buy a farmer time.

"Time is money. In my view, in 20-30-40 years' time there is going to be a range of technologies making the challenge of reducing those emissions a lot less expensive."

Earlier, he linked New Zealand's responsibility to acting on climate change to its wartime decision to form the Anzac fighting corps with Australia.

"New Zealand needs to pull its weight and do its fair share on climate change. It's important to us economically; it's important to us environmentally; it's also important to our reputation of how the world sees us and how we view ourselves."

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