No plan to ban coal - minister

The Government insists there have been no work, plans or announcements around banning coal exploration despite New Zealand signing up to a pact to phase coal out of power generation by 2030.

In November shortly after the Labour/NZ First/Greens government was formed, Climate Change Minister James Shaw headed to Germany, where he told the COP23 conference that New Zealand intends to become a leader in the global fight against climate change.

While there he signed New Zealand up to the international ‘‘Powering Past Coal’’ alliance, which is committed to phasing out the use of coal for electricity generation.

The alliance is led by Canada and the UK but Australia and some of the world’s biggest coal users, such as China, India, the United States, Germany and Russia, didn’t sign.

On Sunday, Energy Minister Megan Woods said no work had been done by the Government on banning coal.

‘‘We have made no announcements about ending coal, and we certainly haven’t done any work,’’ she told Q+A. ‘‘What I’m saying is there are no plans to do that. We haven’t done anything.’’

National Party climate change spokesman Todd Muller said Woods’ comments were ‘‘incredulous’’.

‘‘It’s absolutely incredulous is what it is, and for her to come out and say nothing’s been done when the other part of that Government is proactively, and with some fanfare, signing up to a commitment pre-Christmas suggests she doesn’t know what the other half’s doing or she’s not being straight with New Zealand.’’

But Shaw says the alliance is not about banning coal exploration, it’s focus is on coal for electricity generation.

‘‘There’s a difference between mining for coal and stopping using it in your electricity generation as part of the national grid. That’s what we signed up to.’’

Genesis Energy has already pledged to stop using coal to generate electricity except in exceptional circumstances by 2025.

‘‘As part of the national grid, they’ve got the only coal-fired units in the country,’’ Shaw said.

At COP23, Shaw said, ‘‘we know that the future of our electricity system is in renewables, not coal, so I was delighted we could recognise that formally at this important international meeting’’.

Muller, who used to be a Fonterra executive and attended the COP23 conference with Shaw, said there was a complete disconnect between the Government’s policy and the ability of businesses to deliver on it.

Woods said on Sunday that Fonterra wanted to be carbon neutral by 2050 and that they’re ‘‘going to move away from using coal’’.

Fonterra was always looking to transition away from coal to gas, said Muller, but to replace ‘‘capital assets of the size of Fonterra’s you’re looking at needing 40 or 50 year life spans’’, which the banning of oil and gas exploration permits is not going to allow for.

The country was being set up for ‘‘failure’’, Muller said.

‘‘This is another example of a government that has a high-ended ideal around where it would like to position the country, but are not connecting with the businesses who will ultimately deliver against that promise.

‘‘Because it’s the change that happens at a business level that will largely deliver our ability to meet the targets we signed up to,’’ he said.