Climate activists unimpressed
Even with cash to persuade Kiwis to part with petrol cars, the Government has not impressed many climate activists with the firstever Emissions Reduction Plan.
Notably, the Government backed down over a policy ending new connections to the fossil gas network. The Climate Change Commission wanted all new houses to have electric stoves and heating beyond a certain date.
That policy is absent from the plan. A key surprise was a $569 million fund to assist lowand middle-income Kiwis to swap their old petrol car in for a cleaner alternative. Other policies that received significant cash – such as $350m for cycleways, footpaths and bus shelters – were anticipated. A week ago, the Government announced the scale of the emissions cuts it wants to achieve: all greenhouse gases will fall 7% by 2025; 22% by 2030 and 38% by 2035 (compared with 2019).
The plan covers the first four years. To achieve a cut of 3.1 million tonnes annually, the Government will invest in electric cars, safe cycleways and footpaths, and electric buses, according to the plan.
At the launch, Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the collection of policies would cut greenhouse emissions ‘‘all while creating new jobs, improving our communities and making life better for people’’.
Climate activist David Tong – a campaign manager at Oil Change International – said the first-ever plan was a ‘‘remarkable and historic’’ moment. At the same time, he believed the budgets and policies did not go far enough.
When it released the public consultation document in October, the Government said its own list of policies did not add up to
the emissions targets it set itself. It asked the public for their carbon-cutting ideas. At the same time, some ideas from its independent expert body, the Climate Change Commission, were not heeded – notably the call to stop connecting new houses to the fossil gas network. This proposal was strongly opposed by the gas sector. The Government’s backdown would leave new homes reliant on fossil fuels, Tong said. ‘‘We need to stop building new fossil gas infrastructure,’’ he added.
Instead, the Government said it would develop a ‘‘gas transition plan’’ before the end of next year – which would explore opportunities for renewable gases.
Tong agreed that low-emissions hydrogen gas would have ‘‘limited’’ use, such as in the freight industry. ‘‘It is hard to see a rationale to use that for cooking or heating homes. Burning gases in your house is associated with health risks and other concerns.’’
University of Otago chemistry professor Sally Brooker said zero-carbon hydrogen was made using renewable electricity. For that reason, it was more efficient to use electricity directly. ‘‘That is absolutely the best thing you can do. As soon as you have to convert it into anything else ... you lose a little bit of energy.’’
Even being a hydrogen expert, Brooker chose an electric stove and heating for her new home. Widespread electrification would require careful management to ensure the grid could meet peak-time demand. ‘‘We just need an and-and-and answer to some of these things, rather than trying to pick a winner.’’
Brooker believes green hydrogen is a good option to power long-distance trucks and planes, and to produce chemicals.
As well as creating a gas transition plan, the Government also wants to compose a hydrogen strategy. But it was ‘‘behind the eight-ball’’ compared with other countries, she added. ‘‘Hydrogen is largely ready to rock and roll . . . but we need the rules, the regulations.’’
Reducing energy consumption – for example, by boosting insulation so homes require less heating – was also important, she said. The Government currently pays most of the costs for low-income families to upgrade insulation and buy a heat pump, under its Warmer Kiwi Homes scheme.
According to the plan, this programme will be expanded.
University of Auckland public health researcher Alistair Woodward was pleased the plan presented a new vision for transport. Transport produces nearly 17 per cent of national emissions – and all the major funding announcements were related to this sector. The Government allocated over $1 billion to lower-carbon transport. The big recipients were its new cash-for-old-cars initiative (which will receive more than half a billion), and walking and cycling projects.
That money is intended to make start on specific goals. By 2035, car travel will reduce by 20%. By that point, nearly a third of the cars on the road will be electric.
Emissions from the fuel in the remaining petrol and diesel cars will fall 10%.
The plan presents a wide range of policies to achieve the transformation.
But Woodward warned much of the work to achieve the vision would fall to councils’ transport teams.
‘‘They are going to be required to very quickly turn on a 20-cent piece and head in a different direction. I am not sure they are equipped or well-disposed to do so.’’
With organisational change required, an independent commissioner might be required to monitor and incentivise progress to meet the transport goals, he added.
The plan did not tip as far away from cars as Woodward might like.
E-bike technology – from commuter options to cargo bikes – has come ‘‘so far, so fast’’. Yet there was only a policy for unspecified support for e-bikes in the plan.
A dedicated target would be preferable, Woodward said. ‘‘The same way 30% of the fleet is going to be electric by 2035, why not say 30% of households have access to an electric bike?’’
Indigenous rights activist India LoganRiley said the Government ‘‘over-consulted but under-listened to’’ Ma¯ ori communities.
In the plan, the Government said it wanted diverse input from Ma¯ ori on climate policy and action. Yet many ideas put forth by these communities were absent from the plan. ‘‘The plan acknowledges the need to create an equitable transition strategy – and that Ma¯ ori should be a part of that. But . . . it still hasn’t started that work.
‘‘It is not going to be taking care of people and making sure communities are well and flourishing as we start to be affected by some of these policies.’’
A robust welfare system – with increased income for people with disabilities and an end to sanctions – and fare-free public transport would support vulnerable people as the country started to transition, Logan-Riley said. Well-housed, well-fed, well-connected people were more resilient.
Iwi had also asked for additional land back, so communities could restore it ‘‘for everyone’s wellbeing’’.
Logan-Riley said the ambition of the plan was years behind what was currently needed. The Government was ‘‘very heavily weighing’’ on the vested interests arguing for the status quo.
Young climate campaigners were also disappointed the Government failed to ban onshore exploration for new fossil fuel reserves. Rilke Comer is a member of the student-led law organisation Students For Climate Solutions, which is suing the Government for its decision last year to grant permits for prospecting. With the Emissions Reduction Plan silent on this issue, the court case had become ‘‘the last push in this timeframe’’ to get a ban into law, Comer said. ‘‘The dream outcome for our case is for these permits to be declared unreasonable and unlawful.’’
The plan does ban electricity generators from building a certain type of fossil-fuelled power station – which provides day-to-day or baseload power. But with generation companies flocking to cheaper solar and wind farms, this was essentially a ‘‘redundant’’ policy, Comer added.
Agriculture – which contributes 50 per cent of national greenhouse emissions annually – won’t be asked to do much additional work over the next four years.
Beyond the long-expected plan to introduce a price on farming emissions by 2025, there was little concrete policy directly targeting agricultural emissions.
Even though the financial incentive would not kick in until the final year of the plan, the Government modelled that the equivalent of 0.3 to 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be saved from the listed policies.
On agricultural gases, the Government said the ‘‘most promising mitigation technologies are several years away from use’’.