National direction on industrial greenhouse gas emissions

The Ministry for the Environment is leading the work, with input from MBIE, to help councils’ decision-making on greenhouse gas discharges when planning for and consenting air discharge permits, following changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) last year.

The RMA changes allow councils to consider greenhouse gas discharges, emission reduction plans and national adaptation plans from 31 December this year.

The national direction - either a national environment standard, national policy statement or both -will be used as a regulatory tool to develop nationally-consistent rules set to decarbonise process heat.

The proposals include banning new low and medium temperature coal boilers, phasing out coal in existing sites by 2037 for low and medium temperature process heat, and requiring some industrial sites to have emission reduction plans.

Read the discussion document and make a submission(external link)