MPI questions Climate Commission’s native planting targets

Posted: 04 Nov 2024

Officials from the Ministry for Primary Industries told Forestry Minister Todd McClay the establishment of a long-term carbon sink of native trees was “unlikely to be achievable, even if desirable”.

Since 2021, the independent Climate Change Commission has advocated for the creation of this sink to offset emissions from industries like aviation and concrete where decarbonisation may prove difficult or impossible.

New Zealand should be planting 35,000 hectares of native trees each year from the middle of the next decade, the commission recommended. That would represent a significant increase on the estimated 7800 hectares planted in natives last year.

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