FACTBOX-Main points of New Zealand's carbon scheme
Nov 25 (Reuters) - New Zealand's amended emissions trading scheme passed into law on Wednesday after months of debate.
The governing minority National Party suspended the previous Labour-led government's carbon trading scheme last year and brought in changes, including a delay to the entry of certain sectors and putting a cap on the price of carbon.
Only the forestry sector was allowed to continue to function under the existing carbon trading scheme.
(For a story double click on [ID:nWEL463923]. For a factbox on New Zealand's emissions profile, double click on [ID:nWEL472043]
Here are the main features of the scheme.
TIMETABLE CHANGES: Under the previous scheme the stationary energy and industrial processes sectors -- dominated by emissions from electricity generation -- were due to start on January 1, 2010. This has been pushed back to July 1, 2010.
Liquid fossil fuels -- mostly emissions from vehicles -- have been brought forward six months to also start from July 1, 2010.
Agriculture -- dominated by methane emissions from livestock -- has been pushed back two years to start from Jan 1, 2015.
CAP: The government has yet to set an emissions cap. It has set a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by between 10 and 20 percent by 2020 on 1990 levels, depending on the outcome of a major U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen next month.
* TRANSITION MEASURES: July 1, 2010, to January 1, 2013, will be a transition period. Emitters have the option of paying a fixed price of NZ$25 ($18.25) per tonne of carbon, and will only have to surrender 1 unit for every 2 units of emissions. This level of assistance will be phased out at the rate of 1.3 percent a year from 2013.
The government said its scheme is aligned with Australia's by being production based, with similar test on intensity and a similar timetable for phase out.
The phase-out of industry support is aligned with trading partners and the government's long-term emissions reduction target of minus 50 percent by 2050.
* UNIT ALLOCATIONS: Emissions units will be allocated based on an average of production across each industry, instead of an allocation based on 2005 emissions.
* OFFSET IMPORTS/EXPORTS: Unlimited imports of U.N. offsets called certified emissions reductions (CERs), each of which represents a tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent from being emitted. These are sourced from U.N.-approved clean energy projects in developing countries and are priced in euros per tonne CEREZ9.
Exports of the domestic emissions trading instrument called New Zealand Units (NZUs) prohibited during the transition phase except for the forestry sector. The forestry sector can sell their NZUs overseas but these must be converted in U.N. Kyoto Protocol sovereign instruments called Assigned Amount Units, or AAUs. * COSTS: The government estimates the annual cost to households will be NZ$165 per year from NZ$330 under the old scheme during the transition period.
* AUSTRALIAN SCHEME: The planned Australian carbon pollution reduction scheme is set to start on July 1, 2011.
Australia's scheme, likely to be passed by parliament this week, has a soft start for industry at a fixed price of A$10 per tonne of emissions for the first year, followed by a fully open market from July 1, 2012.
Agriculture has been excluded. <---------------------------------------------------------- For a factbox on the Australian scheme, click on [ID:nSYD485909] -----------------------------------------------------------> (For more on the carbon-trade debate in Australia and New Zealand, click on: [ID:nCARBONAU]) ($ = NZ$1.37) (Reporting by Adrian Bathgate and David Fogarty; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) ((adrian.bathgate@reuters.com; +64-4-4714233; Reuters Messaging: adrian.bathgate.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))
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