How do we tackle climate change? National, Labour, Act, Greens, Te Pāti Māori and NZ First policies compared
How do we tackle climate change? National, Labour, Act, Greens ... New Zealand Herald
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Climate Change: The Policies
Labour
* Uphold the Zero Carbon Act, its set five-year carbon budgets and maintain New Zealand’s agreed international climate change pledges.
* Keep in place the Clean Car Discount and Clean Car Standard
* Price farm emissions by the end of 2025 or otherwise bring them under the Emissions Trading Scheme by 2026.
* Further reform the Emissions Trading Scheme to provide a stronger incentive for businesses to transition away from fossil fuels.
* Maintain funding to help industries phase out coal boilers by 2037 and offer new grants for home insulation and retrofitting
* Keep the current ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration
National
* Keep in place the Zero Carbon Act and maintain carbon budgets and New Zealand’s agreed international climate change pledges
* Review the Clean Car Standard and scrap the Clean Car Discount, while building 10,000 new EV charging stations
* Price farm emissions by 2030 at the latest, establish an Agricultural Emissions Pricing Board by 2024, and review set 2050 targets for methane
* Keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme but allow landowners to earn credits through farm-level sequestration
* Repeal the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration and scrap pumped hydro plans for Lake Onslow
* Require faster decisions and longer consents on new renewable power projects and remove the need for consents for upgrading existing transmission and local lines infrastructure
* Support managed retreat laws, but not state-subsidised insurance or regulations that limit development in at-risk areas
Green Party
* Strengthen the Zero Carbon Act by requiring all government policies, targets and pledges to be consistent with limiting global warming to within 1.5C
* Establish a stand-alone Ministry for Climate Change, with functions for mitigation and adaptation
* Maintain the Clean Car Discount and introduce a deadline for the end of new or used fossil fuel car imports, at or before 2030
* Further incentivise public and active transport and ensure networks are well-integrated
* Price farm emissions by 2025, with higher fees to support the sector in making cuts, while phasing out nitrogen fertiliser on farms
Act
* Repeal the Zero Carbon Act and carbon budgets and replace with a new plan setting the carbon price to the price paid by top five trading partners
* Introduce a hard cap on net CO2 emissions while ensuring it created a price to drive reductions, while introducing regulations to provide carbon credits for wood products that store carbon for at least 50 years
* Repeal the Clean Car Standard and Clean Car Discount
* Keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme and cancel plans to price farm emissions, unless competitors start
* Repeal the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration
* Supports more flexible funding arrangements for local councils to allow for projects to improve climate reliance
NZ First
* Oppose agricultural emissions pricing unless adopted by trading partners
* Support adoption of standardised farm level reporting
* Incentivise uptake of the emissions reduction mitigations with Emissions Trading Scheme revenue and funds ear-marked for buying overseas carbon credits
* Amend the Emissions Trading Scheme to recognise farm forestry and shelter belts
Te Pāti Māori
* End new onshore oil and gas permits and withdraw existing onshore and offshore oil and gas permits within five years
* Phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser on farms by 2025 and bring methane emissions from agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme
* Develop a national Māori strategy for renewable energy and clean technology
* Establish a dedicated $1bn fund for Māori-owned community energy projects and solar panel and insulation instillations, along with a $300m fund to incentivise Māori farmers to transition to “regenerative and value-add” farming practices
* Ensure the Crown works with whānau, hapū and iwi to establish climate change adaptation plans and establish a fund to support Māori with adaptation
Article Summary
Introduction
Our extreme summer made it a top-five issue among Kiwis – and the potential for wildfires and scorching temperatures in a coming El Niño-influenced season promises to place it front and centre once more.
Even through a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis, surveys have shown increasingly widespread concern over climate change – and an appetite for action from our political and business leaders.
Emissions Reduction
New Zealand’s gross emissions may have fallen over the last two years, but the trend since 1990 has been a 19 per cent jump.
That’s largely been driven by agriculture and its cattle-belched biogenic methane – but other emissions sources like transport are also making sizeable contributions.
Through our Zero Carbon Act – and the mandated emissions budgets and reduction plans that come with it – our country now has the legislative architecture to force net emissions down to zero by 2050.
Political Parties’ Positions
But parties have widely varying positions on how to meet our climate commitments – especially when it comes to the headache of how to slash those large-looming agricultural emissions.
Labour is sticking with plans to measure and price emissions at farm level by 2025 – with all raised revenue going back to the sector to help it meet its climate targets – or otherwise force the sector into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by 2026.
National, too, is putting the ETS – which it views as the primary vehicle to meet our 2030 and 2050 targets – square in its policy sights.
The Green Party goes to the election with pledges to price farm emissions, ensure government decisions match efforts required to limit warming to 1.5C, and enable the independent Climate Change Commission to set the supply of units in the ETS.
Act favored repealing the Zero Carbon Act and its carbon budgets with
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 13: Climate Action | 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters | Not mentioned in the article |
| 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 13.a: Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 13.b: Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth, and local and marginalized communities | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 13.c: Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth, and local and marginalized communities | Not mentioned in the article | |
| SDG 15: Life on Land | 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains, and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements | Not mentioned in the article |
| 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests, and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought, and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world | Not mentioned in the article | |
| 15.4: By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development | Not mentioned in the article |
Note: The article does not provide specific information or mention indicators related to the identified targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.
Source: nzherald.co.nz
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