The net-zero objective is set out in the Zero Carbon Act, which Act has long opposed and wants repealed, but which its coalition partner National has supported. <\/p>\n
Act has previously said it wants changes to New Zealand\u2019s targets under the Paris Agreement, or otherwise to leave the agreement.<\/p>\n
Act\u2019s climate change policy, released today, also proposes changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), including removing the Government\u2019s carbon price floor to allow auctions to clear at a lower price. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government currently sets a minimum auction price for carbon units. In 2026, that minimum was $71 while units were trading on the secondary market in the low $50s. The result has been six failed auctions in a row,\u201d Act says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will increase the supply of carbon credits available through Government auctions and put downward pressure on the carbon price, reducing the costs Kiwis face at the pump, the checkout and on their power bills.\u201d <\/p>\n
The net revenue raised through auctions would then be returned to taxpayers through what Act is calling a carbon tax refund. The party doesn\u2019t specify how much this could cost, as the amount could depend on the auction price. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis will act as an insurance policy for New Zealanders. If the carbon price increases, they will be shielded from its cost-of-living impacts through a larger refund,\u201d Act says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf auction revenue becomes so low that delivering individual refunds is impractical, that is good news. It means the carbon price has fallen substantially and Kiwis are already receiving cost-of-living relief through lower prices. In that case, the small amount of revenue would instead be ringfenced to fund other tax relief.\u201d <\/p>\n
Act says that, if the carbon price was about $55, the ETS would be imposing an estimated cost of about $478 a year on a household through petrol, electricity and other costs. <\/p>\n
The party also has policies it says will protect New Zealand-based factories exposed to foreign competitors who face lower or no carbon prices, discourage farm-to-carbon forestry conversions, and cut red tape to encourage the adoption of new technologies. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s climate policy is broken and sending the country broke as a result,\u201d leader David Seymour said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA small trading nation can\u2019t ignore climate policy, but overdoing it backfires and puts unnecessary costs on Kiwi businesses and households.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018Disastrous for New Zealand\u2019s economy,\u2019 – Hipkins<\/p>\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the policy \u201cwouldn\u2019t just be disastrous for the environment, it would be disastrous for New Zealand\u2019s economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur exporters rely on our clean green brand around the world and access to key markets like the European Union are dependent on New Zealand doing it\u2019s bit when it comes to tackling climate change,\u201d Hipkins said.<\/p>\n
The European Union Free-Trade Agreement included a clause on climate change, which commits both parties to upholding agreements to reduce emissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The net-zero objective is set out in the Zero Carbon Act, which Act has long opposed and wants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,4619,4464,5903,12700,7237,96242,42,27705,15220,3120,661,11781,36331,43,143,4762,86583,14170,8225,109469,61,40,38,41,39,780,14638,102,2963,12598],"class_list":["post-591701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2246","tag-act","tag-cap","tag-election","tag-emissions","tag-governments","tag-greenhouse","tag-headlines","tag-instead","tag-line","tag-main","tag-major","tag-net","tag-netzero","tag-news","tag-partners","tag-party","tag-reductions","tag-scrap","tag-target","tag-tie","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trading","tag-wants","tag-with","tag-zealands","tag-zero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}