Wellington - New Zealand's centre-right government released details Monday of a new climate change policy that it said would halve forecast price rises for power and fuel as the country moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. The minority government which came to power in November said its plan would reduce the initial extra cost on the average household to 3 New Zealand dollars (2.10 US dollars) a week over the next three years.
It also gave New Zealand's farmers, whose animals' methane production account for about half the country's greenhouse gases, another two years before they have to start paying for their emissions.
Nick Smith, minister for climate change, said New Zealand was the first country to include agricultural emissions in its climate change policies but it was technically complex and 2015 was the earliest it could be achieved.
Prime Minister John Key told reporters the policy, which amends a trend-setting Emissions Trading Scheme introduced by the defeated Labour Party-led coalition, was a "careful balance between environmental and economic interests."
Key announced that the five members of the Maori Party in Parliament would support his conservative National Party, giving it a majority to change the Emissions Trading Scheme which set out to make New Zealand a world leader in climate change policies.
"It is not our ambition to be way out in front of other countries but it is our view that we should be doing our fair share towards resolving this global problem," he said.
The Maori Party said the deal helped its low-income-family voters and tribes with major interests in forestry, farming and fisheries.
The new policy gives industry a six-month break, until July, before it has to start paying a carbon tax of 25 New Zealand dollars a ton for every two tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Smith said the new policy was designed to encourage farmers and others to plant carbon-gobbling trees which he said were critical to New Zealand's ability to reach its international obligations to reduce greenhouse gases.
Key announced the policy a week before he leaves for New York to attend United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's climate change summit.
He said he wanted it passed by Parliament before the international climate change negotiations scheduled for Copenhagen in December.
The policy was immediately welcomed by business leaders but condemned by the international environmental protection organization Greenpeace, which dubbed it "pathetic and a clear international message that we are not serious about tackling climate change."
Greenpeace political adviser Geoff Keey said: "Under the scheme as proposed, our emissions will just keep climbing and taxpayers, rather than polluters, will have to pay for them. This is dangerous both in terms of equity and in terms of what climate science is telling us."
