Sale of forest carbon credits suggested

A DUNEDIN city councillor has suggested the council could sell its stock of carbon credits instead of Aurora Energy.

The suggestion came up during the approval of feedback on the draft statements of intent by Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL), at a council meeting on Tuesday. DCHL is an organisation that oversees the finances and sustainability of eight companies it owns on behalf of the Dunedin City Council, which includes City Forests.

Cr Jim O’Malley requested that City Forests’ relationship to carbon credits be included as a key performance indicator (KPI) within its statement of intent, in order to clarify how many millions of dollars worth of credits the councilowned forestry company possessed. The council had been examining its own assets ‘‘primarily to deal with our debt load’’, he said.

The sale of Aurora Energy was sitting before the council as an item marked for public consultation, but it had become apparent to him that City Forests possessed a ‘‘fairly substantial amount’’ of carbon credits that could be turned into a liquid asset.

‘‘Are we actually getting all the assets that we have out there and converting them over in such a manner that . . . we even have to do Aurora if we were able to get more from City Forests and other such things?’’ he said.

Whether DCHL could also use carbon credits to pay its $11 million dividend to the council would also be looked at, he said.

Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said City Forests needed to manage its stock of carbon credits while bearing the market in mind.

The company needed to hold a buffer or else it could put itself in a position where it needed to repay money, he said. DCHL chairman Tim Loan previously said the council’s reserve of carbon credits was valued at $53m, subject to market fluctuations.

❛ Are we actually getting all the assets that we have out there