Business Not United Behind New ETS
October 2nd, 2009
The NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development says the ETS deal National has put together with the Maori Party and which will now go to a Select Committee means emissions are likely to increase and cost taxpayers a lot more than under the current law. At the same time, the prospect of a broadly based multi-party-party deal, including both National and Labour, appears to have disappeared. The ETS will probably remain on the political agenda for each future election.
The proposed amendments to the scheme have only been supported by the Maori Party to Select Committee stage so the actual outcome remains uncertain. The Business Council’s CEO, Peter Neilson, says this means continuing policy uncertainty for the next three months, possibly longer.
Capping the price on emissions and delaying the phase out of assistance for major emitters could cost the taxpayers billions of dollars. Overall, this proposed policy appears to greatly reduce incentives to heavy emitters to reduce emissions, increase costs of subsidies to them, slows down the timetable for reducing emissions and allows them to be increased in the meantime. The more production rises, the more the taxpayer must step in to pay for the additional emissions.
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