Environment watchdog calls for 'serious' New Zealand action on climate change

New Zealand's most senior environment watchdog on Thursday said the government must start taking climate change seriously and restore the integrity of its carbon scheme.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright told Parliament in a published submission on the country's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that bold leadership was needed on climate change.

"New Zealand needs to take this seriously. Climate change threatens financial resilience and long term prosperity," she said.

Wright said the country could not continue to ignore its agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

"These gases, methane and nitrous oxide, currently amount to about 48 percent of our emissions. The average for the OECD (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation) countries is about 11 percent, so this is a major challenge for New Zealand," she said.

"It will be very difficult to meet our Paris target if the agricultural sector does not begin to take some responsibility for methane and nitrous oxide."

She also criticized the government for stockpiling "laundered" carbon units that represented no real reductions in carbon dioxide, which undermined the integrity of the ETS.

"To prevent this situation arising again, it is critically important that the government restricts future purchase of offshore carbon credits to those that represent real and verifiable emission reductions," said Wright.

The ability to buy "respectable" carbon credits offshore could be a cost-effective way to reduce global emissions, but New Zealand also needed to reduce the emissions within its borders.

"New Zealand is the only country with an ETS that has put no limit on the purchase of offshore carbon credits. Other countries have set limits on the proportion of units that can be purchased offshore, typically around 10 percent," she said.

"That limit on offshore purchases may not need to be as tight as those of other countries."

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett, who signed the Paris Agreement at the United Nations in New York last week, reiterated at the time that New Zealand's 2030 target was to reduce emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels.

Critics have repeatedly accused the government of having no real plan to reduce emissions.