Proposed changes to regulations for the NZ ETS 2022

Closed 28 Apr 2022

Opened 17 Mar 2022

Contact

etsconsultation@mfe.govt.nz

Results updated 18 Nov 2022

From 17 March to 28 April 2022, the Ministry for the Environment consulted on proposed technical amendments to regulations under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to maintain the accuracy of the NZ ETS. Decisions on the updates were announced on 21 July 2022.

Thank you to all who made a submission.

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

Overview

Decision

The Government has reached decisions regarding regulation updates to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (SGG) Levy.

  • Climate Change (Unit Register) Regulations 2008 will be updated. Regulation 11D will be repealed to remove an accounting transaction which relates to voluntary emissions offsetting activity during the Kyoto Protocol commitment periods (2008–12 and 2013–20 inclusive).
  • Climate Change (Other Removal Activities) Regulations 2009 will be updated to remove criteria for registering as a participant in the NZ ETS in relation to specific removal activities. This means that in the refrigerant sector, a wider set of NZ ETS participants will be able to gain NZUs for removing specific potent greenhouse gases by exporting or destroying them.  
  • Climate Change (Stationary Energy and Industrial Processes) Regulations 2009 will be updated so the schedule of emissions factors listed in regulations reflect changes to the chemistry of mined natural gas.
  • Biofuels regulation changes that were consulted on will not be going ahead due to complexities with accuracy, efficiency and implementation. 

Review the proposal

We make technical amendments to regulations under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to maintain the accuracy of the NZ ETS.

This consultation closed on 28 April 2022.

We consulted on the following proposed technical amendments.

  • Climate Change (Unit Register) Regulations 2008  - Repeal Regulation 11D to remove an accounting transaction which relates to voluntary emissions offsetting activity during the Kyoto Protocol commitment periods (2008–12 and 2013–20 inclusive).
  • Climate Change (Other Removal Activities) Regulations 2009 - Update to the regulations to remove the criteria for registering as a participant in relation to specific potent greenhouse gas removal activities.
  • Climate Change (Stationary Energy and Industrial Processes) Regulations 2009 - Update the schedule of emissions factors listed in regulations to reflect changes to the chemistry of mined natural gas
  • Climate Change (Liquid Fossil Fuels) Regulations 2008 - Change the methodologies that opt-in participant and obligation fuel participants use to calculate emissions, so the full reduction in emissions caused by the opt-in participant’s supply of biofuel is part of their emissions return.

Read the consultation document for Proposed changes to regulations for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme 2022 [PDF, 1.3 MB]

What happens next

Following Cabinet approval, any new regulations or amendments to existing regulations will be published in the New Zealand Gazette by late September 2022 and come into force from 1 January 2023.

If you have any queries, please email etsconsultation@mfe.govt.nz.