Rimu Atkinson

Hi

I oppose the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill, mostly because of the intensity based allocation. Intensity based allocation offers polluters little incentive to reduce emissions, instead it merely provides an incentive not to emit any more (as a ratio of production) than they do already. So if production goes up then emissions can also, as long as emissions only go up by the same amount. Further, when this happens the taxpayer will pick up the tab for the extra emissions as this ETS only allocates carbon within NZ and we (the country as a whole) will still need to meet our international obligations.

These changes gut the existing ETS to be more favourable to polluters, by handing out massive and unsustainable production-based subsidies to them, while capping the price they will immediately pay for it - destroying the incentive for forestry, our biggest source of potential reductions.

Also, under the existing law, allocation decisions must be made openly and are subject to extensive consultation - meaning that we get to see how much the government wants to give away and to whom (and object if necessary). Now, allocation decisions are made in secret; there is still a duty to "consult", but that means the usual business of talking with industry insiders rather than an open, transparent public process. The upshot: more room for corruption in allocation decisions. And with billions of dollars at stake, that is not something we can afford.

By 2030, $2 billion dollars will be being given to polluters each year. $2 billion is serious money. Even discounting it back into today's money ($1.32 billion assuming 2% inflation), we're talking more money than the cost of ACC or the prison system, about a third of the education budget, or the entire cost of the police, given away each year to polluters. It is simply impossible that the public will allow this situation to continue for long. Especially as with the economy how it is, we will need to borrow that money *at interest* to give to the polluters.

Thank you for your time

Rimu

I ripped a lot of the text from http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2009/09/climate-change-bill.html http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2009/09/climate-change-2-billion-year.html http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2009/09/climate-change-reality-of-subsid... which cut down the time it took to write by a lot. The online submission page is easy to use but has a fatal flaw which would stop 95% of firefox users - the popup blocker stops the submission page from appearing after you fill in the prove-you-are-a-human thing. Maybe it's ok in IE...

Submissions close tomorrow (sometime?). Do it now.