The emissions trading scheme (ETS) which came into force at the beginning of this month should be changed to reduce the burden on consumers, the Labour Party says.
Next year's scheduled review of the scheme would be an opportunity for that, environment spokesman Charles Chauvel said today.
The ETS imposes a charge on the energy and fuel industries, which is likely to be passed on to users at an estimated cost to the average household of an extra $3 a week.
"The review needs to make the scheme fairer to households," Mr Chauvel said.
"The current scheme places a disproportionate burden on taxpayers by requiring them to pay big subsidies to emitters.
"On top of that it's unfair to households to subsidise businesses."
Mr Chauvel said the scheme needed to collect revenue from emitters and use that revenue to pay for schemes that helped reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.
"This is how we could pay for a range of badly needed environmental initiatives. It's how we could promote energy efficiency in every New Zealand home and business.
"It's how we could promote a `cash for clunkers' programme to get gas-guzzling cars off the road."
Labour had its own ETS passed by Parliament before the last election. National said it was too expensive and changed it so it cost about half as much.
Labour says the result was to charge consumers rather than emitters.
NZPA