Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5612] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Climate Change Issues) 
: 
 The Government has a major challenge on its hands in respect of climate change policy. There are a number of points I wish to make in the approving of the estimates. The first concerns the importance of accurate information. One of the concerns I have had both in Opposition and upon coming into Government was that there have been widely varying estimates on New Zealand’s Kyoto balance—in fact variations of over $1 billion. So a major investment has been made by the Government in the land-use and carbon-analysis system to try to use the latest satellite technology so that we can get some reliable figures around where New Zealand’s carbon balance sits. I am pleased to inform the House that last month we received the first of that satellite data and that has given us far greater confidence about our estimates of New Zealand’s forest area. That shows that New Zealand will be broadly in balance in the Kyoto period. 
Members will be aware that we are progressing towards important negotiations later in the year in Copenhagen in which New Zealand is determined to play a constructive role in securing a post-2012 agreement to succeed Kyoto and that last week we announced a target of a 10 to 20 percent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels. There has been some debate about whether that is the right place for New Zealand to position itself. I would note that it is a more ambitious target than has been set by the United States by Canada and by Japan. It is very similar to the target proposed by our near neighbour Australia. The real thing for New Zealand to understand is that because our emissions are 24 percent above 1990 levels a reduction target by 2020 of between 10 and 20 percent will actually be enormously challenging and as the papers released from Treasury today note incredibly ambitious. New Zealand is actually committing to contribute a greater portion of its GDP to this challenge of climate change than what many other countries are contributing. 
A very important priority in these estimates is finalising and trying to build as broad a consensus as is possible around an emissions trading scheme. My ambition would be for us to be able to go to Copenhagen with emissions trading scheme legislation in New Zealand settled. 
There has been some debate about the events in Australia last week. In the Senate the current Labor Government had its carbon pollution reduction scheme voted down. My view is that that is just one of the humps and bumps that will occur around this difficult and challenging issue. It does not change the desire of the New Zealand Government to work closely with Australia. I note that the Liberal Party in Australia and its leader Malcolm Turnbull are on record as supporting an emissions trading scheme for Australia. I am confident they will get there. I am equally confident that the right thing for New Zealand to do is to align its own emissions trading scheme as closely as is possible with Australia’s given the huge level of trade inter-people contact and the like between New Zealand and Australia. 
The last point I will make concerns the huge number of initiatives that the Government has got going across the board to try to improve our environmental performance and to address those increases in New Zealand’s emissions. Just last week Parliament passed legislation to provide an incentive for full electric cars. We announced in the Budget the $48 million commitment for supporting biofuels and a price incentive for the development of that new technology. The Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee has committed $323 million to the home insulation and clean heating initiative. There are important initiatives by the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Forestry David Carter for incentivising new forest planting. There is a very broad package that provides for a common-sense and balanced approach to this challenging area of work.