Proposed National Environmental Standard to Control Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Landfills Resource Management Act Section 32

• Executive Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Statement of the Issue
• 3 What are the Options?
• 4 The Proposed Landfill Gas Standard
• 5 Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Proposed Standard
• 6 Summary of Findings
• References
• Appendix 1: Landfill Base Data
• Appendix 2: Emissions, Benefit and Cost Model Spreadsheets

6 Summary of Findings

Section 32 of the Resource Management Act requires that before a regulation is made, an evaluation is to be undertaken of the proposals' appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency. This report has undertaken this process for the proposed national environmental standard for landfill gas collection and destruction. The report shows that, from a list of potential options, the national environmental standard is the most appropriate option.

The proposed national environmental standard option has been shown to be efficient, with a net present value between $9.2 million to $46 million and a benefit-cost ratio of between 4.80 and 23.98.

The proposed national environmental standard has also been shown to be extremely effective, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.77 million tonnes CO₂e over the appraisal period. This equates to $0.69 per tonne of CO₂e reduced.

Sensitivity analysis has been undertaken and confirmed that the analysis is robust and defensible. The methods recommended by the International Panel on Climate Change have been used to estimate greenhouse gas emissions, so uncertainty has been minimised in this respect.

It is the finding, therefore, of this section 32 report that the proposals for a national environmental standard for landfill gas collection and destruction are appropriate, effective and efficient.

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