May 31, 2018
Tough rebuild for climate credit confidence
Climate change Minister James Shaw says he’s keen to rebuild the confidence of Maori and other stakeholders in the emissions trading scheme.
Consultation has started on what should be in the Zero Carbon Bill to be introduced into parliament later this year.
Mr Shaw says Maori interests will be disproportionately affected by climate change because of the location of marae, the connections to the takutai moana and the concentration of Maori assets in the primary sector, particularly forestry.
He says the ETS was designed in the mid 2000s with the best of intentions, but the previous National Government changed the settings.
"Maori lost hundreds of millions of dollars in value on their forestry holdings when the price of carbon credits collapsed when the Government changed the settings and allowed these kinds of cheap dodgy units in from Ukraine and Russia and so on, so the whole scheme lost a lot of credibility," Mr Shaw says.
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