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History of climate change policy development

Climate change is a fast moving area of public policy. Since the climate change policy package was approved by Cabinet in 2002, the broader situation in which climate change policy operates, particularly as it relates to energy and forestry use, has changed considerably.

When the Government announced its climate change policy package in 2002, it was noted that it would be important to regularly review the progress of the policy package and to continue to monitor innovative policy measures in other jurisdictions in order to assess how these could be of relevance to New Zealand.

As a Party to the Kyoto Protocol, New Zealand is committed to reducing its emissions to 1990 levels, on average, over the period 2008-2012, or taking responsibility for any excess emissions by purchasing or generating Kyoto-compliant units. The nature of any international commitments beyond 2012 is currently being be negotiated

The New Zealand economy has grown strongly over the last five years. This has many benefits but one adverse consequence is that our greenhouse gas emissions have also grown – particularly in the energy, agriculture and transport sectors.

List of publically released cabinet papers

Initial policy development 2002

The 2002 Climate Change Policy package, agreed by Cabinet, had some the following key elements;

  • A carbon tax on energy, industrial, and transport emissions, capped at $25 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
  • Exemption of agricultural emissions from any broad based price measure during CP1
  • Negotiated Greenhouse Agreements for for large emitters who face significant risk to their competitiveness relative to producers in countries with less stringent climate change policies.
  • Projects to Reduce Emissions, which would provide Kyoto units to projects that generate additional emissions reductions in the Kyoto Commitment Period 1
  • Joint industry and government funding of research in the agricultural sector.
  • Government retention of sink credits and associated liabilities from forestry, including the government meeting emissions liabilities for deforestation up to a defined cap of 21 million tonnes CO2e.

To provide some historical context on policy development, the 2002 cabinet paper entitled Climate Change 1: Confirmation of Preferred Policy Package (PDF 169KB), and Climate Change II: New Policies cabinet decision (PDF 49KB) is available to the public.

The 2005 Review of New Zealand’s Climate Change policies

A Review of New Zealand’s Climate Change Policies was presented to the Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues, Hon David Parker, in November 2005. The aim of the review was to take a strategic "stock take" of where New Zealand was at in terms of policy development and provide the Government with the basis for strategic choices for the longer term. The Review was part of an ongoing process agreed by Cabinet in 2002 to periodically examine the state of New Zealand’s climate change policies.

Following this Review, Minister Parker announced that the Government would no longer proceed with the proposed Carbon Tax, which had formed part of the 2002 policy package, and would consider other ways to manage New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result of the decision to not proceed with the Carbon Tax or any other broad based tax in the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period (2008-2012), no further Negotiated Greenhouse Agreements were entered into after this time.

New Policy Package 2007

In 2006 Cabinet approved a whole-of-government climate change work programme. These work programmes were designed to enable New Zealand to manage climate change as a long-term issue, to play its part in reducing emissions, and to encourage other countries − especially the major emitters − to reduce their emissions.

Consultation on the government's preferred policy package on energy and climate change took place between December 2006 and March 2007 around New Zealand. The five discussion documents produced for the consultation and a summary of New Zealand’s submissions on climate change proposals are available.

In October 2007, the Government announced its new package of climate change policies including the Emission Trading Scheme and supporting sustainability initiatives.

Last updated: 20 March 2008