Agriculture in ETS first task for new committee
Climate Change Minister James Shaw has announced the members of a climate change committee and asked them to plan for getting agricultural emissions into the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The interim committee is chaired by David Prentice of Business NZ and features former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright.
The interim group will be replaced when an independent Climate Change Commission takes over in May of 2019, when Shaw hopes to pass a Zero Carbon Act.
Both groups will be working towards the same long-term goal: getting New Zealand down to netzero emissions by 2050, with 100 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2035.
The terms of reference specifically asks for advice about getting agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme [ETS], which they signal is inevitable.
‘‘It’s always been a presumption that agriculture would come into the ETS when the conditions were right,’’ Shaw said.
The group are asked to look at ‘‘the full range of feasible options for including agriculture in the NZ ETS.’’
If agricultural emissions do enter the ETS farmers would have to either pay for their emissions by the tonne or trade their obligations within the market, perhaps offsetting them with other actions.
The committee will look at how this would impact the New Zealand economy and how any adverse effects to farmers could be mitigated.
‘‘We wanted to get started on some of the big really thorny questions,’’ Shaw said.
‘‘The Interim Climate Change Committee will begin this important work until we have set up the independent Climate Change Commission under the Zero Carbon Act in May next year,’’ Shaw said.
‘‘The interim committee will consult with stakeholders and hand over its work and analysis to the Climate Change Commission.’’
The ETS was set up by the fifth Labour government and initially was set to include agricultural emissions, which makes up almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas profile. The fifth National government decided to remove them from the scheme.
Greenhouse gases are the primary cause of human-influenced climate change, which is likely to cause drastic damage to food production, coastlines, and weather in coming decades.
Both the committee and the commission will seek to consult stakeholders and provide advice for the Government of-the-day – but will not set laws themselves.
The model is based on the UK’s, where an independent Committee on Climate Change provides advice, reports, and key recommendations for Government on whether they are meeting their own climate goals.
Committee-member Wright, who recently finished her second term as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, recommended in 2017 New Zealand follow the UK model.
She said at the time that there was ‘‘no direct link between New Zealand climate policy and reaching the Paris target.’’
The Paris target, signed up to by the former Government in 2015, commits New Zealand to reducing our net emissions of harmful gases to 57.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. The UK also sets ‘‘carbon budgets’’ into law about 12 years ahead of time, leaving each Government to decide how to meet them.
Wright and Prentice are joined by deputy chair Lisa Tumahai, chairwoman of Nga¯i Tahu, researcher Harry Clark, former Meridian Energy CEO Keith Turner, and Motu Senior Fellow Suzi Kerr.
Shaw celebrated a huge win for his Green Party last week with the announcement new oil and gas exploration permits would not be granted by this Government. A 150-metre bus lane in Auckland has racked up more than $1 million in fines in a year.
From November 2016 to 2017, 8462 infringement notices were issued to drivers for breaching the Kingdon St to Broadway transit lane in Newmarket.
Figures released to Stuff under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act showed the notices totalled to about $1.27 million in fines.
Remuera resident Jay Williams said the large number of infringements issued by Auckland Transport (AT) amounted to nothing more than ‘‘revenue gathering’’.
In August, Williams was stung with a $150 fine after entering the bus lane 28m earlier than the 50m allowed by law.
The signage marking the bus lanes was ‘‘confusing’’ and with other cars ahead it was difficult to see where the 50m entry point started, he said.
Williams, who believed the fine was ‘‘unjust’’, attempted to dispute the infringement but his appeal was denied by AT.
‘‘AT should be putting this money into resolving the problem rather than just getting this shock- ing amount people.’’
Another common spot where motorists were pinged was the Pah Rd transit lane in Royal Oak, which netted Auckland Council an average $3000 a day in infringement notices.
In the six months from October, 3718 tickets were handed out to motorists trying to beat queues, totalling $557,700 in fines.
AT spokesman James Ireland said there was an ‘‘ongoing battle’’ to keep Auckland motorists out of bus and transit lanes.
‘‘This is not about raising money, this is about compliance, and keeping the city moving.’’ of money from
Transit lanes, which become active at certain times of the day, are restricted to passenger service vehicles, motorcycles and vehicles carrying the specified minimum number of passengers.
Motorists could only enter a bus lane or transit lane 50m before making a lefthand turn.
‘‘Buses are the backbone of Auckland’s public transport system and it’s essential that they can move as freely as possible, and this is why bus and transit lanes are so important,’’ Ireland said.
Regular enforcement was in place across the lanes to keep them running as smoothly as possible, he said.
Te reo sign possible
Plans for a bilingual welcome to Rotorua road sign may proceed after the New Zealand Transport Agency said it was willing to work with Rotorua Lakes Council on the issue. Plans for the signage, part of a push to establish Rotorua as New Zealand’s first official bilingual city, had hit a roadblock after the NZTA cited rules that required signs to be in English. However, Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said talks with NZTA chair Dame Fran Wilde had been positive. ‘‘Council has a constructive working relationship with NZTA and we will keep working on this, we’ll get there. This will set the precedent for other places so it needs to be done properly and we need to get it right.’’ NZTA director of safety and environment, Harry Wilson, said the agency was open to exploring options for te reo signage.
Trainee pilots hurt
Two international trainee pilots have been hospitalised after a late night smash that saw one of them thrown from a car on a rural Waikato road. Family members of the two Indian men are flying to New Zealand to support the pair who are in a serious, but stable, condition in Waikato Hospital. The pair were two of three trainee pilots in the vehicle that crashed and rolled multiple times on a rural road near Matamata on Monday night. All of the men lived together while training at NZ Aviation flight school at Waharoa. A 19-yearold man in the back passenger seat was thrown from the car, police said.
Benefit backpay
Processing issues have meant about 1000 Kiwis have been missing out on their full entitlements under new accommodation supplement rates. However, the error is expected to be rectified by the end of the week and those affected will be repaid. Ministry of Social Development client service support group general manager Dwina Dickinson said the ministry, through Work and Income, provided the supplement to about 290,000 clients. Of these, about 135,000 saw an automatic increase when changes to the weekly payment took effect from April 1. ‘‘We’re double-checking about 1000 records that didn’t process as expected.’’
New Stage Challenge
The team behind the annual Smokefree Rockquest high school events will now be running the replacement for Stage Challenge. In February, Education Minister Chris Hipkins promised that the Government would step in to find a replacement for the popular school cultural event, after it was canned because of a lack of funding. More than 500,000 students had participated in the shows in the past 25 years. Yesterday, Hipkins – a former Stage Challenge participant himself – said a new school arts events would replace Stage Challenge later this year. RockQuest Promotions Ltd (Rockquest) would run the event in 2018, funded by a one-off grant of $800,000 from the Ministry of Education.