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Leading New Zealand land restoration and investment company, Tāmata Hauhā, is today calling for the Government to stop the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), saying it’s significantly undermining confidence in the role forestry has in fighting our climate emergency.
Founder and CEO of Tamata Hauha, Blair Jamieson is highly concerned that despite forestry being New Zealand’s only viable tool to offset emissions, the Government’s desire to change the ETS will take forestry off the table and will significantly slow New Zealand’s progress towards reducing the impact of climate change on our planet.
“This constant tampering stems from a huge misconception that we have an oversupply of forestry which enables big polluters to purchase cheap offsets to reduce their emissions.
“Forestry isn’t the issue. The problem is the quantity of fabricated credits the Government gives away or sells to emitters. Unlike credits that are actually sequestered from forestry and which genuinely offset greenhouse gases to reduce the impact of climate change, these are not real.
“We understand the Government is set to issue 380 million tonnes of these fabricated carbon credits by 2034 – and because these credits are detached from any genuine sequestration and fail to offset any emissions, they don’t help address our climate emergency,” said Mr Jamieson. “Additionally, only 9% of the ETS is permanent forestry, the remainder is production. As I said, forestry isn’t the issue.
He adds “The Government and those who are anti-forestry need to be honest with the NZ public and explain how, if we don’t use trees to soak up our CO2 emissions, we will meet our legal obligations under the Paris Agreement unless we’re willing to pay out billions of dollars for other countries' units.
“Climate change is real, and we have a long way to go. Unless we start increasing the pace and scale of our efforts, the impact on our planet will be catastrophic. Forestry is our only tool and interestingly our tree coverage is far less than what we had in the 1970s and 1980s. Over 15 billion trees globally are removed yearly without adequate replacement and if you look at land conversion trends, they’ve shifted away from forestry worldwide.
“To create a sustainable future, we must collaboratively explore how forestry can contribute to the solution, in the same way that we need to consider how productive farmland can play its part.
“We have a collective responsibility to safeguard the well-being of our planet and future generations. We’re urging all stakeholders, including government, industries, and communities to work together to have a mature conversation about recognising and harnessing the potential of forestry as a climate change solution to achieve a sustainable future.