KEY POINTS:
The taxpayer will soon be paying to offset the environmental damage done by globetrotting ministers of the Crown as part of the Government's push on climate change issues.
Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed the Government will buy carbon credits to offset the emissions of travel, both domestic and international, by ministers and their staff.
Costs of an estimated $40,000 a year could double after staff travel is added.
The scheme will be run by Landcare Research, a Crown research institute that specialises in sustainable land management and puts the money paid in offsetting emissions into planting land with native trees.
Landcare's CarboNZero calculator shows flights for a return trip to Sydney will add about $33 to the travel bill to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from the flights. A trip to London will add $270.
Helen Clark said the Government was adopting the practice because it was expected to show leadership as it moved ahead with key climate change policies - which will include a major announcement about a new emissions trading scheme on Thursday.
The ministers' travel scheme is expected to be considered by the Cabinet soon and will apply to all trips taken since July 1 this year.
The six Green Party MPs have paid for their travel emissions out of their own pockets since the start of the year.
Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said it cost them a few hundred dollars a year each.
"They [the ministers] have got the luxury of being able to charge it to the taxpayer, and we haven't. But good on them. They've finally caught up."
Ms Fitzsimons said paying personally was an incentive to cut back on travel, but it was probably not fair to apply it to ministers who travelled a lot, such as the Foreign Affairs Minister.
"I'm glad they're doing it and I don't want to put 'shoulds' on anybody else. We feel bad about the amount of carbon we burn to do our work, but we can't do our work without it so we try to make up for it that way."
Helen Clark said the scheme would also lead to ministers questioning more the necessity of their travel and could mean more use of techniques such as video-conferencing rather than travel.
"It's the way the world is moving, and it's the way we have to move."
She said it was becoming more common - international conferences were increasingly requiring attendees to travel in a carbon-neutral way.
The Prime Minister said it was also important for the Government to practise what it preached.
It has told public service departments to start reducing emissions and six - Environment, Health, Economic Development, Inland Revenue, Conservation and the Treasury - are expected to have carbon-neutral plans in place by early next year.
At least one minister has already pre-empted the new scheme's introduction - a spokeswoman for Jim Anderton said he had already offset two recent trips, one to the US and Mexico, another to Japan and Korea.
The Prime Minister said the Cabinet had also agreed yesterday to its final energy strategy, which is expected to hold more details about helping people in old houses to insulate them.
It is due for release next month.
HOW IT WORKS, AND HOW MUCH
* The CarboNZero tourism and travel calculator works out emissions for everything from flights, staying in a hotel over a backpackers' hostel, visiting different tourism attractions, and taking a taxi instead of a shuttle bus.
* It gives the cost of offsetting those emissions and allows for a payment to be made, to invest in Landcare Research's reforestation programme.
* The Herald calculated the approximate cost of offsetting the carbon emissions of some ministers who have travelled overseas recently.
* The calculation for each trip included all international flights, two restaurant meals a day, and nights in a hotel.
Trevor Mallard: 9 nights on trip to Japan, Canada and US - $303.75
Jim Anderton: 13 nights in the US and Mexico: $236.25.
Nanaia Mahuta: 10 nights in China: $236.25
Winston Peters: 8 nights in Spain and Portugal, $303.75
Rick Barker: 5 nights in Malaysia, $135.
Helen Clark, Winston Peters, Phil Goff: Visit to Sydney for Apec, $33.75
Pay your own way using the travel and tourism calculator on www.carbonzero.co.nz
