Labour Vows to Fix 'Broken' Emissions Trading Scheme

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has pledged to fix what he calls the 'broken' Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if his party is elected into government in November's election. The scheme, which was set up to help New Zealand meet its 2050 net emissions target and international obligations under the Paris Agreement, has been criticized for being too low to drive meaningful emissions reductions.

Under Labour's plan, the ETS would be reviewed and changes made to incentivize genuine emissions reductions rather than relying on offsets. The party would also reconsider the role of forestry in the scheme and ensure it supports New Zealand's Paris Agreement targets. As part of this process, new rules would be developed to prevent whole-farm conversions while new forestry registrations in the ETS would be paused.

Hipkins says that Labour is fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New Zealand on course to meet its targets. He claims that walking away from the agreement, as some other parties are planning to do, would give up on future generations and impose huge costs on the economy.