KEY POINTS:
A group representing much of New Zealand's productive sector says the Government is risking disaster in its hasty attempts to design a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.
The Greenhouse Policy Coalition, whose members include Federated Farmers and Business New Zealand, said the "headlong rush" to finalise a scheme risked creating a system that did not work.
In a letter to Climate Change Minister David Parker, the coalition said drafting legislation while still consulting was unrealistic.
There was a risk of "another policy failure" if the Government continued with plans to finalise its policy by September.
Mr Parker has more than 3000 submissions on the draft New Zealand Energy Strategy, to be published in September, and the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, due out in October.
Mr Parker has said the timing would coincide with decisions being taken on emissions trading.
The coalition said its members had made serious considered submissions, but design of the scheme had begun before the consultation started and was ongoing.
"This is not consultation in good faith," the letter said.
Mr Parker has said the decisions about climate change policy would 'mesh" but the coalition feared this would not happen.
The issues were complex and it appeared the Government was leaning towards an ambitious trading system covering all gases and all the economy, the coalition said.
The "cap-and-trade" regime will mean businesses' emissions will be set at a certain level.
Then they will have to either meet the cap or buy an emissions credit from someone else with a surplus.
One way might be to pay a forest owner not to cut down or plant trees, which would reduce the release of carbon to the atmosphere.
"There are major issues around methods of allocation, the level of the cap, and competitiveness at risk for New Zealand industry which require careful working through," the letter said.
"The current timetable will not allow this to happen and we fear future policy failure instead of policy certainty will be the end result."
It said the Government should follow the example of Australia, which was taking four years to design a trading system.
Meanwhile, another critic of the Government's climate change policy is distributing totara seedlings to MPs and members of the public in protest at climate change policy.
The Kyoto Forestry Association says it has invited leaders of National, the Green, Maori and Act parties to a presentation on Parliament's steps today.
The association is angry at the Government's allocation of carbon credits from forest plantings.
- NZPA
