Hon Todd McClay
Minister of Forestry

The Government has today confirmed a 50 per cent reduction to the annual charge for forest owners participating in the forestry Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced.

“This decision delivers on the Government’s promise to rebuild confidence in the forestry sector and support its role in achieving New Zealand’s exporting and emissions targets,” Mr McClay says.

The decision follows consultation on amendments to the Climate Change (Forestry) Regulations 2022, which proposed to reduce the annual charge from $30.25 per hectare per year to $14.90.

“We have been working with the sector to ensure we get the settings right and restore confidence to the over 4,300 forestry participants in the ETS registry,” Mr McClay says.

It’s now clear that the previous Labour government made a number of decisions that drove up the cost of this Registry and they expected the forestry sector to pay for their mistakes.

“The new charge ensures that forestry participants still pay their fair share of the costs to administer the forestry ETS registry, while not bearing the brunt of Labour’s previous decisions,” Mr McClay says.

“The work to bring costs back in line continues and we have started a wider review of cost recovery settings to be completed in 2026.

“The forestry sector Reference Group was established to increase transparency across the costs of the forestry ETS registry.”

The new annual charge will enter into force in January 2025, with invoicing beginning in February 2025.

The amendment to regulations will be notified in the New Zealand Gazette this week

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