New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution.

New Zealand hereby communicates its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement. New Zealand commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. New Zealand’s preferred approach for accounting for the forestry and other land use sector is described below (as per its INDC). This approach sets out core assumptions and is provided in advance of discussions on an international rule-set that would apply after 2030, and that could also apply to New Zealand’s first NDC. We reserve the right to adjust our selection of methodologies, without reducing ambition. New Zealand’s approach to forestry and other land use accounting will be fully described in its first communication under the Paris Agreement. New Zealand’s assumed accounting for the forestry and other land use sector will be based on a combination of the 2006 IPCC Guidance and the 2013 IPCC Kyoto Protocol Supplement, providing for Kyoto Protocol accounting approaches to be applied to the greenhouse gas inventory landbased categories. New Zealand’s existing activity start year of 1990 will continue to apply, ensuring continuity of action with previous commitments.
New Zealand’s forestry and other land use approach assumes accounting will be either land or activity based, and will apply existing IPCC methodologies to distinguish areas subject to direct human-induced change from those under pre-existing management, as follows: a. Forests established from the activity start year will continue to be accounted for as they would under the Kyoto Protocol, but once they attain their long-term average carbon stock, taking into account all carbon pools and activities, the forest will transfer to the Forest management/Forest remaining forest category, where it will be accounted for under a business-as-usual reference level. New Zealand will continue to account for all deforestation emissions. b. Forests established before the activity start year will continue to be accounted for under a business-as-usual reference level, as per the Kyoto Protocol, to address the dynamic effects of age structure resulting from activities and practices before the reference year, and the ongoing cycles of forest harvest and regrowth that occur as part of normal, sustainable forest management. c. Accounting provisions to address natural disturbance, land-use flexibility, legacy effects, non-anthropogenic effects and additionality since the activity start year will also continue to apply, building on existing guidance. Harvested wood products accounting will be based on the production approach. New Zealand’s forestry and other land use approach builds on experience with accounting under the Kyoto Protocol to recognise and focus on additional action, and will create incentives for the establishment of new forests, recognise permanent, long-term enhancements of carbon sinks resulting from new management, and take responsibility for deforestation, while accommodating the long-term cycles in net emissions and removals that arise from sustainable forest management.