Kyoto legislation to come in two stages

By BRIAN FALLOW

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson has outlined the consultation process to be followed as the Government decides how to give effect to its commitment to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The legislation required for ratification will be done in two stages, Mr Hodgson told the Environmental Defence Society last night.

The first bill covers the minimum requirements for ratification by September next year.

It will, for example, enable the Government to buy greenhouse gas emission units on the international market, and set up a national system to monitor and report on emissions.

The second bill will set out the policy by which the Government intends to meet the commitments that New Zealand undertakes by ratifying the Kyoto protocol.

It will reflect politically difficult decisions about how much of the burden will fall on which sectors.

The role of different policy instruments - emissions trading, a carbon tax, levies and voluntary negotiated agreements with major emitters - and how the initial stock of carbon credits will be allocated will also have to be decided.

Preliminary consultations with sector representatives have already occurred and more take place soon.

There would be a second round of consultation on the Government's preferred policy package next year. "The second bill would be introduced when practicable following that, with the expectation that it would be passed in 2003," Mr Hodgson said.

nzherald.co.nz/climate

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

United Nations Environment Program

World Meteorological Organisation

Framework Convention on Climate Change

Executive summary: Climate change impacts on NZ

IPCC Summary: Climate Change 2001