It is important New Zealand meets these commitments.
As a small nation, we rely on a rules-based international order to make our way in the world. That rules-based order enables us to trade with other nations, to ensure that our citizens are safe when they travel overseas, and to keep us as a nation comparatively secure in a turbulent world.
To have any hope of keeping this world habitable for generations of children to come, we need to participate fully in the global effort to cut climate emissions so that together, the small economies of the world can get the big economies on board too. If we renege, then other countries will feel enabled to renege too.
The economic impacts of climate change are also a massive motivator for New Zealand to take action. While we are bound together with other nations through history and friendship, we are rather more tangibly bound together through trade agreements. Many of our new trade agreements specify that we must maintain our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Consumers also want clean, green sustainable products. The Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf were once rare on our roads – now they are commonplace. Many road users could see that fossil fuels are on their way out, are only going to get more expensive, and chose to purchase electric and hybrid cars instead. Given the continuing impact of the changing climate on ordinary people’s lives, being climate sustainable will inevitably become a necessary attribute of any product or service.
We also have to have certainty and predictability for our primary industries to continue to be successful. Those increasingly frequent storms are already having an impact here in New Zealand and across our region. Our agricultural and horticultural sectors need to know they will have the right conditions to grow the food they do, but increasingly chaotic weather and the pests and pathogens caused by climate change are threats to that.
Our agricultural and horticultural sectors need to know they will have the right conditions to grow the food they do, but increasingly chaotic weather and the pests and pathogens caused by climate change are threats to that, says Dr Deborah Russell. Photo / File
We have a lot to lose if we don’t bring down emissions and transition economies from fossil fuels as the basis of our energy systems. The longer we leave it, the harder it will be, and the more it will cost.
The National Government has repeatedly claimed that it is committed to the Paris Agreement, but its actions speak otherwise. Since coming into power, it has, among other things, cut the clean car discount, cut public transport subsidies for young people, cut the Climate Emergency Response Fund, reduced funding for Pacific climate finance, reduced funding for scientific research into climate change, put programmes for reducing waste on hold, and stopped work on renewable options for dry-year electricity storage.
Significantly, the Government has gone it alone on agricultural emissions. The methane target in the Zero Carbon Act was developed through months and months of intense negotiations across Parliament. All parties bar one voted for the Zero Carbon Act in a moment of real bipartisanship that gave some certainty to business about the road ahead.
A few weeks ago, the Government announced that it would reduce the methane target range to 14% to 24%. Consultation across the House on that range was minimal – just one meeting between Opposition spokespeople and ministers – and the new range was not agreed to.
The Government followed that up by announcing a whole new set of climate measures in a press statement that was released at 8pm at night, again without any consultation with the Opposition. Those measures weaken the standing of the Climate Commission as an independent advisor and reduce the requirement for public consultation.
One of the most significant measures is to cut the links between the Emissions Trading Scheme and our commitments to the Paris Agreement. That decision was made without any notification whatsoever, not even through a public consultation process. The carbon price dropped by 10% the next day, and it is now trading at about $45, well below the auction floor price set by the Government. That means the ETS simply won’t function as a tool for reducing carbon emissions, yet the Government says it is relying on the ETS as its major tool for meeting our Paris commitments.
By weakening the role of the Climate Commission, reneging on climate bipartisanship, and undermining the ETS, the Government has let New Zealanders down.
That’s not a sustainable approach for business or agriculture, let alone for ordinary people trying to make plans for their future. We need to have a climate policy that sticks instead of successive governments chopping and changing the rules.
We also need a government that is up front about what it is doing. Saying that it is committed to meeting the Paris Agreement targets, but then acting in a way that is completely contrary and lowering those targets seeds confusion and doubt. No one can make good investment decisions when there is no certainty about what the Government might do.
This year’s COP in Brazil marks the 30th annual gathering of countries to tackle climate change and, to keep track of progress on that goal committed to in Paris 10 years ago.
It is important the Government is held to account for its actions – or in this case, inaction – on climate change and I look forward to attending to doing that. I will be meeting representatives from around the world who are leading the transition of their economies and industries away from fossil fuels, and developing ways to bring down emissions in agriculture – not just simply moving the goalposts when it suits them.
Our hope of a decent life for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, relies on finding solutions to climate change that work now. At COP in 2035, when the world marks the 20th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, wouldn’t it be fantastic to be celebrating limiting warming, so that we can all look our kids in the eye and tell them we did what we needed to. That we made the right calls to secure their future. We just need a government that is brave enough to make it happen.