Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Forest owners want clarity

Avatar photo
Forest owners want clarity on what they are expected to deliver for climate change targets. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton downplays the contribution of forestry in sequestering atmospheric carbon and wants to cut fossil fuel use.
Reading Time: < 1 minute

But the Forest Owners Association [resident, Peter Weir says Upton is contradicting the Productivity Commission’s report that pointed to planting trees serving as carbon sinks as the main means of getting New Zealand to carbon neutrality by 2050

Upton said long-lived gases from burning fossil fuels should be treated differently to short-lived greenhouse gases from biological sources.

Weir said Upton is correct in that forestry can’t offer climate change solutions indefinitely.

“The industry has never suggested that we are a solution for all time. 

“But in the immediate term we just can’t wait for the development of a political will for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels or the evolution of technical solutions to reduce livestock emissions.  

“We don’t have time for either of those.”

“Fast-growing exotic plantation trees are a quick fix for getting our net emissions down in the critical next couple of decades.  

Farm Forestry Association president Neil Cullen also wants the Government direction to be clear. 

“We have a concern that there is a proposal from the PCE to restrict forestry offsets. If the government decided to follow this and limit offsets to agriculture then this would have a dramatic, negative impact on the value of carbon units, reduce planting rates and perpetuate the seesaw policy that forestry has been experiencing for too long.”

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading