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Foresters face delayed deadlines for ETS obligations
With the review of New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) now not expected until late-August, the government has introduced a bill to delay several of pre-1990 foresters' climate change obligations under the scheme.
In our last update, we suggested the government might push out one or both of the June or July 2009 deadlines as a result of the delayed reporting from the New Zealand ETS review committee.
The government yesterday introduced the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill (the bill) into Parliament and hopes to have the bill passed and enacted in the next ten days, by the end of June 2009. It seeks to delay several of the pre-1990 foresters' obligations under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 and the government has announced that it considers it has sufficient support to pass the bill by the end of the month.
What will change?
The first amendment would push out the current application deadline for applying for a less than 50 hectare exemption from 30 June 2009 to a later date that will be announced either through regulation or public notice issued by the government. This would enable the government to prepare and release the final allocation plan before the exemption application deadline falls.
Given the connection between the allocation plan and the right to apply for a less than 50 hectare exemption (in the event the forester has not yet deforested) the bill gives government more time to prepare and finalise the allocation plan for pre-1990 foresters.
The bill pushes out the 31 July 2009 deadline, on which foresters must apply for a free allocation of units, to an unspecified date which will follow the release of the final allocation plan and the deadline for applying for a pre-1990 exemption.
The bill also delays the deadline by which a pre-1990 forester must notify the government of its registration as a participant for deforestation occurring in 2008 or 2009 to 31 December 2010.
The deadline for surrendering units for compliance purposes arising from such deforestation would be pushed out to 30 April 2011. Pre-1990 foresters would therefore be surrendering units for deforestation for 2008, 2009 and 2010 in the same 1 January to 31 April 2011 period.
The next step
We expect, although it is not certain, the bill will be passed by 30 June 2009 in a form similar to that in which it currently exists. Pre-1990 foresters should continue to prepare for the deadline of 30 June 2009 (in case the bill is not passed in time), but would be wise to hold off from submitting applications in the interim.
For further information, please contact your usual Bell Gully adviser or:
Simon Watt
Partner
Kate Radka
Senior Associate
David Craig
Partner
Garry Downs
Partner
Ian Gault
Partner
Willy Sussman
Partner
Clive Taylor
Partner
Marija Batistich
Senior Associate
Disclaimer
This publication is necessarily brief and general in nature. You should seek professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication.
