1st Tender Round for Projects to Reduce Emission

Projects to Reduce Emissions

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 14 August 2003

First Tender Round for Projects to Reduce Emissions

The Government is looking for proposals from businesses, organisations and individuals for projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These projects will be chosen by tender and the successful tenderers will receive an incentive of emission units, often referred to as ‘carbon credits’, to trade as they wish.

The Government is offering the incentive to projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008 – 2012). Emission units are expected to be internationally tradeable when the Protocol comes into force.

The tender round is planned to take place during September and October 2003. A pool of four million units will be available. The New Zealand Climate Change Office has set up a Projects team to oversee the tender.

Programme manager Bruce McLean says Projects are a key plank in the Government’s climate change policy, which was announced in October 2002.

“They offer businesses an incentive to undertake initiatives that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in any sector of the economy. With this incentive, successful tenderers will be able to go ahead with projects that would otherwise be uneconomic.”

The types of projects likely to qualify include:

- Those using renewable energy sources such as wind or bio-energy.
- Emission reductions associated with the waste sector.
- Switching fuels to reduce carbon emissions.

Projects must result in a quantifiable reduction in greenhouse gases and not be ‘business-as-usual’. If the available four million units are oversubscribed, priority will be given in this first tender round to larger projects that will contribute to electricity security.

Pre-tender briefings to explain the tender process will be held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in early September.

Potential tenderers can register for one of these briefings and find out more about the Projects tender round by visiting: www.climatechange.govt.nz.

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