Public anxiety ‘understandable’
reduce New Zealand’s carbon emissions to zero by 2050, before the legislation goes before Parliament in April 2019.
‘‘Anxiety from people about the bill is perfectly understandable,’’ Shaw said.
‘‘People are always anxious about change, particularly about change to them, rather than change by them.’’
Many people supported measures to limit the effects of climate change but did not want to be hurt on the bottom line, Shaw said.
‘‘People actually want the country to do its bit and lead but are anxious about how to go about it.
‘‘This is the whole point of the legislation, to provide reassurance.’’
Among the biggest sources of anxiety around the move to carbon-zero by 2050 was the effect on household incomes.
Shaw was adamant incomes would not go down.
‘‘People will be better off in 2050 no matter what we do,’’ he said.
‘‘It is just whether you will be this better off, or that better off.’’
Shaw expected he would need to explain at public meetings how this would happen.
He also expected cross-party agreement for the legislation.
‘‘We can work together on the design on this, which is better than if it is just passed by one side of the House because the whole point of the Zero Carbon Bill is to provide certainty and policy stability.
‘‘A lot of corporate New Zealand want it [the zero carbon legislation] because it allows them to make big investment decisions where previously the whole climate policy space has been up in the air.
‘‘The problem would be if multimillion-dollar investment decisions were made and then circumstances change and all that investment is wiped out.’’
Shaw said the coalition was conscious of this and wanted an open consultative approach.