Forestry planting - are we getting the right balance?

Posted: 13 Apr 2021

Dr David Hall, of the AUT-based Policy Observatory says one big issue facing NZ's climate change challenge is using forestry as a substitute for reducing gross emissions ("mitigation deterrence").  If the cost of sequestering carbon is lower than the cost of preventing emissions, then companies are deterred from the more urgent task of actually preventing further emissions from entering the atmosphere.

"New Zealand's climate policy has put too much emphasis on climate mitigation and not enough on climate adaptation.  The Emissions Trading Scheme is calibrated to discover the least-cost emissions reductions; it's indifferent to other issues like adaptation and biodiversity.  By monetising carbon sequestration, it creates a financial incentive for forests that are cheap to plant and quick to grow.  Pinus radiata is hard to beat on this front – but from a climate adaptation perspective, it isn't a good idea to have a national forest estate that's all in one species.  Our best defence is to diversify our forests, to spread our risks, and also to introduce greater biodiversity into the forests themselves, in terms of diverse tree species, age class, and silvicultural systems."

Read the full article here.