WELLINGTON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's first national guidance for local businesses to voluntarily offset their emissions was released on Thursday.
"There is huge appetite in New Zealand to act on climate change and reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions as a country," Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said in a statement.
The ambition of many New Zealand businesses to become carbon neutral has led to an increase in demand for voluntary emissions offsets, Shaw said, adding the guidance outlines steps and principles that should be met in order for a voluntary offset to be deemed credible.
"Importantly, the first steps to a credible, voluntary offset approach is to measure your emissions, then reduce them as much as practicable. Only after these steps have been undertaken should your remaining emissions be offset," the minister said.
Shaw also released the framework for assessing New Zealand's climate change risks on Thursday.
The framework is for the upcoming National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) and will inform climate change adaptation and mitigation opportunities for the country to be resilient and prepare, he said.
"We are already experiencing the effects of a changing climate such as coastal inundation and increasingly frequent and severe droughts, floods, fires and storms, he said, adding this framework is an acknowledgement that we must start adapting.
The framework will enable a broad range of risks to be compared and evaluated in terms of their nature, severity and urgency.
