Offshore emissions reduction

Details of the request

1. Has any offshore emissions reduction already occurred this year and if so, the details of the location, volume, costs, types of trees, reduction calculations, and agreements with the other concerned nation.
2. Documents and communications since the start of 2022 which detail plans to fund carbon removal and greenhouse gas offsetting activities offshore.
3. Advice on how that funding will contribute to NZ meeting our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)
4. How that funding will be distributed through until 2030 - will it be linear funding from 2022 onwards, or more at the backend of 2022-2030.
5. When these costs will be brought into Budget appropriations.
6. The estimated costs of offsetting emissions domestically vs. offsetting emissions offshore (and a breakdown of the costs for each country being considered)
7. Advice on assessing and verifying the credibility of such removal activities.
8. And any checks to ensure offshore tree planting, or other carbon removal methods, will still be in place going forward (eg. checks to ensure those trees won't be felled after a said amount of time)
9. Advice on any risks that those offshore removal activities may fail to make the expected contribution to addressing NZ's greenhouse gas emissions.