'Carbon cowboys' to face fines of up to $200k

"Carbon cowboys" using dodgy tactics - from selling carbon credits twice for the same trees to taking money to plant trees that never find their way into the ground - have been told they may face fines of up to $200,000 if they are caught by the Commerce Commission.

The watchdog yesterday issued its draft guidelines on carbon claims – an attempt to rein in some of the wilder claims made by environmental schemes.

It warned companies offering "carbon neutral" products, offsets for air travel or carbon neutral events who could not prove their claims that it would be "vigorously" chasing complaints from their customers.

Buying credits to help plant trees, build windfarms or capture greenhouse gases from landfills has become steadily more popular in New Zealand.

Businesses and celebrity sports people such as golfer Michael Campbell and rowing's Evers-Swindell twins acting to make themselves carbon neutral.

Little regulation specifically targets carbon offset schemes.

But the commission warned companies they fell squarely within the fair trading laws.

CarboNZero programme business manager Mike Tournier - whose employer, Landcare Research, provides more than 90 per cent of New Zealand's carbon offsets - said the guidelines were needed to rein in "carbon cowboys".

"A lot of players have seen this as an opportunity to make some quick money, they're all diving in there. It has been the Wild West," he said.

Mr Tournier said "chequebook certification" schemes were swapping meaningless credits for money.

"We've had clients come to us who've spent over $25,000 and bought junk credits."

There is no set method for calculating the carbon emitted by a product or activity in New Zealand and no set method for offsetting it.

In August, a Consumer Magazine study found the carbon emissions calculated for the same return flight from Auckland to Brisbane ranged from 331kg of CO2 using Qantas' carbon offset scheme to 958.09kg using Landcare Research's carboNZero.

Mr Tournier said Kyoto Protocol rules said projects that did not directly absorb carbon (as trees do) counted towards reducing emissions if they would not have happened anyway.

A wind farm built as part of a country's normal electricity supply does not count towards carbon offsets, but one that could not have been built without the carbon credits system does.

Carbon offset schemes have been criticised as giving the purchasers a licence to pollute.

But Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the schemes were an important step towards making people aware of their emissions and starting to put a price on carbon.

Mr Tournier said CarboNZero's focus was on getting an accurate picture of someone's carbon emissions and reducing them rather than buying offsets.

Feedback on the draft Commerce Commission guidelines can be sent to carbonguideconsultation@comcom.govt.nz before April 3, 2009.