Greens want to replace Emissions Trading Scheme

Wellington:

The Green Party wants to replace the Emissions Trading Scheme with a fund that would return dividends of up to NZ$250 (F$364) per person each year.

As part of its climate change policy announced in Auckland, the party says the Kiwi Climate Fund would put a charge on all climate pollution, including farmers, and pay people for planting trees. The Greens leader James Shaw said the charge on agriculture emissions, starting in 2020, would reduce an average dairy farm’s profitability by less than 2 percent. “No farmer I’ve talked to wants their child to inherit a world with longer droughts and drier rivers. Agriculture can no longer be exempt from reducing climate pollution; farmers need to be part of the solution,” he said.

The fund would charge NZ$40 (F$58.24)per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions and NZ$6 (F$8.74) per tonne of nitrous oxide and NZ$3 (F$4.37)per tonne of methane emissions from agriculture. “We say tax pollution more, and peoples’ incomes less,” Mr Shaw said.

The Green Party would drop the bottom tax rate from 10.5 percent to 9 percent.

The party has also reiterated its pledge to legally bind all future governments to the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050. It would do this by passing a Zero Carbon Act in its first 100 days in government.

The party would also establish an independent Climate Commission, and public investment funds to divest from companies directly involved in exploration, mining, and production of fossil fuels.

Other initiatives include creating a new humanitarian visa category for people displaced by climate change in the Pacific, and a fund to help farmers transition to sustainable agriculture.

The Green Party would drop the bottom tax rate from 10.5 percent to 9 percent. The party has also reiterated its pledge to legally bind all future governments to the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050.

RNZ