NZ Guidance for Voluntary Emissions Offsetting – What You Need to Know

According to Hon. James Shaw, New Zealand’s Minister for Climate Change, there is a huge appetite in New Zealand to act on climate change and reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions (Government Releases First, 2019).

The Ministry for the Environment published Guidance for Voluntary Emissions, a guide for organisations, entities, and individuals who wish to be carbon neutral and to bid to offset their emissions.

The guide only applies to voluntary emissions offsetting by an organisation. It does not apply to regulated entities or sectors the government requires to report their emissions, which have ‘surrender obligations and reporting obligations.’

These sectors, apart from agriculture, are comprised of forestry, agriculture, waste, synthetic gases, industrial processes, liquid fossils, and stationary energy like electricity generation and industrial heating.

The guidance details how voluntary offsetting can be considered credible by meeting the criteria of transparency, measurable and verified, having additional value due to an intervention done, not double-counted, addressing leakage, and should be permanent.

The New Zealand Unit (NZU) is the primary unit of trade in the NZ ETS (NZ Emission Trading Scheme), wherein one NZU represents one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent for other greenhouse gases.

Currently, there is no direct link between the NZU of the NZ ETS and New Zealand’s international emissions reduction target for 2020. How New Zealand’s emissions are accounted for and reported internationally differs from how emissions are accounted for in the NZ ETS. 

NZ ETS is domestic policy and operates domestically under the Ministry for the Environment.

However, voluntary emissions can still be used to achieve both international and domestic reductions by following a two-step Kyoto cancellation process. Voluntary offsetting using New Zealand Units (NZUs) should follow a Kyoto cancellation process to avoid double counting, which is counted both against a national target and as a voluntary offset (Guidance for Voluntary, 2019).

The guide explains in detail how this is done. Get a copy by clicking on the button below:

The guidance will be effective until 31 December 2020; however, work is currently being done to provide another guide for after 2020.

New Zealand continues to progress in its commitment and cooperation to achieving national and international climate change programs through the Guidance document, the Zero Carbon Act, and other climate adaptation and mitigation plans.