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Source: Sunday -
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The government has set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of between 10% and 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith announced on Monday.
The target will be part of New Zealand's negotiating position at a climate change conference in Copenhagen later this year and the final target would be dependent on how those talks went.
The offer of a 10% cut was made if only developed countries signing up to a comprehensive treaty and 20% if developing countries signed up as well.
Prime Minister John Key said the targets were credible and responsible.
"It seeks to balance our economic opportunities with our environmental responsibility. The target is going to be a big ask for New Zealand because our gross emissions are already 24% above our 1990 levels ," Key said.
A 10% to 20% reduction was close to Australia and other countries and well above the United States.
Greenpeace has been campaigning for a 40% target but Key said this would have created unacceptable job losses and cost increases on families.
The target would be met by reducing domestic emissions, storing carbon in forests through more tree planting and purchasing emission reductions from other countries.
Smith said Cabinet had also decided that an emissions trading scheme covering all sectors would be implemented and would be aiming to finalise details of this before the Copenhagen meeting.
It was difficult to estimate how much it would raise costs for households as this depended on the price of carbon and how people changed their behaviour.
One study has estimated that a 15% reduction would result in a drop disposable income from $49,000 a year to $47,650 in 2020.
Petrol prices could rise by between 3.7 cents a litre and 12.3 cents percent a litre dependent on the price of carbon.
Climate Change Negotiations Minister Tim Groser said the targets put New Zealand in a "fine position" internationally.
"I think people have got to understand this is not a parlour
game that people are involved in. This is serious governments
taking on serious measures," Groser said.
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Other countries would understand the difficulties New Zealand faced
in reducing emissions because of the way its economy was
structured.
He did not believe the Copenhagen meeting would see an agreement finalised, but there would be a solid basis to finalise one next year and at that point New Zealand would set a final target.
Smith said the target balanced economic opportunities with environmental responsibilities and that National is still committed to a 50% reduction by 2050.
Treasury and many business groups have suggested an even lower reductions than 10%, but Greenpeace has run a high profile campaign urging the 40% cut.
Smith said New Zealand's problem remained that its main source of emissions was farm animals and these were difficult to reduce.
The government still wanted agriculture included in an ETS , but it was going to be very hard to implement.
Smith said the target balanced economic opportunities with environmental responsibilities.
"This target is internationally credible and both environmentally and economically responsible," he said in a statement.
Key said last week that setting a 40% reduction target would effectively mean they would have to fall by 64%.
"That would have a catastrophic effect on the New Zealand
economy," he said.
