Govt backs coal-free schools

Climate campaigners have welcomed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement that schools burning coal will switch to green energy by 2025.

The Government will allocate $10 million to co-fund the lower-carbon tech for schools. But activists say the biggest and most-polluting boilers in hospitals, prisons and universities have not received funding – and should also be urgently replaced to reduce emissions.

And with boiler conversion engineers in high demand, the Government could struggle to meet its proposed deadline.

By 2025, the entire public sector will need to be carbon-neutral – a pledge the Government made when it declared a climate emergency in December 2020.

For any remaining emissions, ministries and departments will need to purchase offsets.

But by this point, the 180 schools burning coal today will have been switched to an electric heating system or one burning wood, Ardern said.

It was fitting that the public sector transition to lower-carbon energy focused on schools, Ardern said, considering young people’s high degree of concern about climate change. ‘‘Coal boilers have no place in our future in New Zealand.’’

The Government will put $10m to this project and the Ministry of Education will contribute another $10m.

Tim Jones of Coal Action Network Aotearoa said the announcement was very good news. ‘‘It is excellent that the Government is committed to getting all coal boilers out of schools ... In a climate emergency, we absolutely should not be burning coal.’’

The announcement covered the 180 primary and secondary schools currently burning coal for heating systems. But according to government estimates, another 150 burn diesel and an estimated 800 burn LPG or natural gas (the fossil fuel form of methane). These boilers, particularly the ‘‘really dirty’’ diesel ones, must also be tackled, Jones said.

Climate activist Alva Feldmeier, the executive director of 350 Aotearoa, said green energy was better for the health of school communities.

‘‘Any coal boiler being replaced is good news,’’ she added. ‘‘We have heard from schools that have transitioned out of coal already and they have reported cleaner air for them to breathe. In the job of cleaning out those coal boilers, school caretakers are exposed to very toxic waste.’’

But schools typically had small heating systems, Feldmeier said. The largest stateowned boilers in the country were in hospitals, correctional facilities, universities and councils, she added.

‘‘These are the big polluters we are really concerned about [and] are not included in today’s announcement,’’ Feldmeier said. ‘‘It is a cop-out. It is an embarrassment, really.’’

On the 21⁄2-year timeframe for the conversions, Jones said it was critical to set ambitious targets.

But achieving the 2025 deadline would require investment into people as well as equipment, he added.

Jones said the government contracts would help to build up a workforce of engineers and other specialists who could conduct boiler swap-outs. ‘‘That capacity might start out working on the state sector but it can work right across the country to get coal and other fossil fuels out of the economy.’’

The Fossil-Free State Sector Coalition, which includes groups such as 350 Aotearoa and Coal Action Network Aotearoa, has lobbied for the Government to provide funding for all state-owned fossil-fuelled boilers to switch to green energy.

After crunching the data, Feldmeier estimated this would require up to $1.6 billion in funding.

‘‘Coal boilers have no place in our future in New Zealand.’’ Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister