Forest owner pockets second round of millions

Forest owner pockets second round of millions from emissions trading

A New Zealand forest owner has once again netted itself millions of dollars from the sale of New Zealand forestry Kyoto credits, Carbon News reports this morning.

The company, which has now earned more than $20 million from selling carbon credits overseas, says that the Emissions Trading Scheme is "the best thing since sliced bread".

According to Carbon News, the country’s only specialist carbon market information service (www.carbonnews.co.nz), Ernslaw One last year sold its entire allocation of 520,000 New Zealand emissions units (NZUs) in a deal thought to be worth around $11 million.

The company has now confirmed to Carbon News that it has also sold the credits it received this year for carbon sequestered by its 25,000ha of post-1989 plantation forest last year.

Neither the company nor its agent will reveal details about the sale, but say that the units (converted to AAUs for international sale) went to the same buyer as last year.

Carbon News understands that that buyer was the Norwegian Government, which can use the credits to offset that country’s international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

ENDS

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