Meridian Energy CEO disappointed by credit critics

Media Release
For immediate release: 6 September 2007

Meridian Energy CEO disappointed by carbon credit critics

Meridian Energy CEO Keith Turner today expressed disappointment at a group which challenged the carbon credit trading project running on Trade Me.

Euan Mason, Piers Maclaren, and Justin Ford-Robertson took issue with Meridian’s sale of carbon credits on the internet and questioned the gain for the environment.

“There are many ways of engaging with the climate change issue and purchasing voluntary carbon credits and retiring them is just one of the ways people can do this,” said Dr Turner.

“The forestry lobby would have us absorb carbon with carbon sinks like forests. That’s fine. But it is completely false to say that is the only way to deal with climate change.”

“Reducing emissions is a critical challenge for the whole world,” said Dr Turner.

The Kyoto Protocol is a multinational accord to reduce emissions and Kyoto countries have pored over the science of carbon trading, carbon credits and how to motivate reduction in carbon emissions.

“It is trite to think that a couple of scientists closely aligned with the forestry lobby can discredit the work of many countries in this field,” Dr Turner added.

“Meridian has sold large blocks of Kyoto compliant carbon rights to the Swiss and Dutch governments.”

“These governments wouldn’t be paying significant sums of money for carbon rights if they weren’t satisfied they were a genuine contribution to climate change and accredited by the Kyoto mechanisms.”

Dr Turner noted that the voluntary carbon credits being sold on Trade Me have been registered by the Swiss-based Gold Standard Foundation: ”This standard demonstrates the highest quality renewable energy taking into account cultural, environmental, social and economic issues. These are rigorous standards that have been achieved by Meridian and underpin the quality of our credits.”

“We’re very clear that the sale of these voluntary carbon credits gives the winning bidders the choice to retire them and therefore ‘offset’ or neutralise their CO2 emissions in to the atmosphere,” said Dr Turner. “Some leading wine producers are already doing this to enhance their international appeal.”

“This trial has been supported by M-co, the Marketplace Company, which has developed a carbon registry for the purpose of this sale and possible future sales. This was an important part of our decision to engage in this exercise.”

Each unit has its own serial number and the buyer’s name will be logged with the units they buy. It is here that the purchaser can retire their units and therefore make a positive impact on the environment. The voluntary carbon credits were created by the Te Apiti wind farm in 2006 as it reduced thermal generation.

“This week we’re keen to get people thinking and talking about what they can do as individuals. We’ve had a huge response and we are humbled by the public engagement,” Dr Turner added.

ENDS

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