Carbon News: Forester Says NZ Now Has "Clayton's" ETS

Media release

20 July 2012

Carbon News: Forester Says New Zealand Now Has "Clayton's" Emission Trading Scheme

New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme is now a Clayton’s scheme, says the man who spent five years fighting for carbon credits for forest owners.
Roger Dickie, of the forestry investment company Roger Dickie New Zealand, is reported in New Zealand's specialist carbon market information service, Carbon News, today as saying the Government’s decision not to restrict the free flow of international credits into the New Zealand market was "the final blow".

Carbon prices are at an all-time low in the wake of new uncertainty over the legality of the European Union’s plans to restrict carbon supply.
Spot New Zealand emission trading units (NZUs) – the units held by most New Zealand forest owners – closed between $5.15 and $5.20 last night.
The New Zealand Government had proposed imposing restrictions on the number of international units such as CERs and ERUs that New Zealand emitters could use to meet their carbon obligations, but backed off at the last minute because of fears it would push carbon prices up in this country.

Dickie, who led the forest owners’ fight for ownership of the credits generated by the carbon stored in their trees, has told Carbon News that he remains optimistic that in the long-term carbon prices will rise.
But in the meantime, carbon forestry is a non-starter, he says.

“Everybody is sitting on their hands and doing nothing,” he said. “The Government isn’t committed to it. It’s a Clayton’s ETS and there’s not much we can do about it.”

Earlier this month, Carbon News reported Ernslaw One chief executive Thomas Song - a pioneer of international sales - as saying that it was not worth planting trees for carbon if it was worth less than $8 a tonne.

Carbinet papers released last week showed that the majority of people making submissions on amendments to the ETS supported a restriction on foreign credits.

ENDS

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