Pursuant to section 69(1)(a) of the Climate Change Response Act 2002 ("the Act"), this notice sets out the Crown's intentions to issue and allocate New Zealand Units (NZUs) under the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme for the five-year period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2017.
The Crown intends to issue 225 million NZUs for allocation and removal activities during this five-year period.
The Crown intends to issue all of these into the Crown holding account on 1 January 2013.
The Crown will allocate some of these units each year in response to eligible applications under the Act.
Industrial and agricultural activities apply for allocations by 30 April each year the application covers, with NZUs allocated as soon as practicable after the application has been completed.
The Crown also intends to allocate NZUs to owners of
pre-1990 forest land after 31 December 2012.
The remainder of the 225 million units are intended to
be issued to participants for removals activities listed in Schedule 4 of the Act.
This figure is based on the Crown's intentions under current legislation.
The Crown is currently in international negotiations
under the Kyoto Protocol and considering amendments
to the Act, which could result in changes to the Act and
the Government's intentions regarding these matters.
To provide further certainty to the public, a further notification of intention will be gazetted in January 2013
to detail any variations to these intentions.
Dated at Wellington this 27th day of March 2012.
CRAIG FOSS, Acting Minister for Climate Change Issues.