Not content with using fraudulent carbon credits to meet New Zealand’s international commitments, the Government has a plan to cook the books to cover up our growing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Morgan Foundation’s new report exposes the impacts of this covert plan to change the forestry accounting rules for New Zealand’s 2030 climate change target. The Government has refused to release information on the impact of the rule change, so we built our own forestry emissions model to find out. Our key finding is that the rule change will allow an estimated 79 million tonnes of excess greenhouse gas emissions. That equates to nearly one year’s worth of New Zealand’s emissions wiped off the books.

This will mean that New Zealand’s current 2030 commitment is not in fact a progression on past targets, violating a key principle of the Paris Agreement. This risks setting a harmful precedent that could undermine global climate change efforts. To account for the impact of the rule change, our analysis indicates the Government’s current target of -11% on 1990 levels must be increased to a 30% reduction.

Supplementary Information

Forestry Emissions Model v1

OIA

About the Author

Gareth Morgan

Facebook Twitter

Gareth Morgan is a New Zealand economist and commentator on public policy who in previous lives has been in business as an economic consultant, funds manager, and professional company director. He is also a motorcycle adventurer and philanthropist. Gareth and his wife Joanne have a charitable foundation, the Morgan Foundation, which has three main stands of philanthropic endeavour – public interest research, conservation and social investment.