“Labour is fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New Zealand on course to meet its targets…. Walking away from it, as National and its mates are planning to do, would be giving up on our kids’ future and impose huge costs on our economy.”
If the farming sector is the ‘backbone of the economy’ then why is it that we are struggling to stand upright economically at the moment? Is it because agriculture is a economic drain on the rest of NZ. It provides 85% of our export revenue. But contributes just 5% of GDP, 5% of the workforce, and 1-3% of tax revenue – which effectively measures the profit to NZ.
National, a party of supposed economic geniuses, will spend billions on an LNG terminal that is not needed, billions on roads of National significance whose business cases are appalling, and attack Labour for a policy that is cheap, will help ordinary people, reduce fuel dependancy and greenhouse gas emissions.
In the midst of multiple states of emergency caused by climate change induced rainfall Mark Mitchell and Christopher Luxon have reverted to Oil Industry talking points that what is happening is “just weather” and that “weather changes.”
A comparison of the LNG Terminal deal and the previous Government’s deal with NZ Steel to replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace clearly shows what this Government’s priorities are.
The Government has responded to a perceived urgency caused by dry years to the country’s power supply by proposing something that is counter intuitive. Instead of rolling out solar it wants to burn imported Liquified Natural Gas. And use enabling legislation to avoid any overview of the proposal.
The Government is legislating to halve methane emission reduction targets and remove the requirement for the ETS to accord with Paris Accord obligations. And intends to pass these changes under urgency despite there being no requirement to do so.
Count them and weep.
It appears to be more and more inevitable that National will welch on the country’s Paris Accord obligations.
The Commerce Commission has dismissed Federated Farmers’ claim that banks offering lower interest rates to clients who meet greenhouse gas emission targets are engaging in cartel type behavior.
It is now clear why Simon Watts rushed out a three page brochure setting out what this Government’s response to climate change will be. It knew that the latest Climate Change Emissions Reduction Plan was coming out for consultation. And that it could not come up with a credible plan.
This week Change Minister Simon Watts showed the depth of the Government’s thinking by releasing a three page brochure outlining its collective thoughts. If the Government is at that level of thinking the country is well and truly stuffed. And meanwhile ACT’s Mark Cameron wants to prevent local government from considering climate change when formulating regional plans.
National and their minion parties just announced another massive $400 million R&D subsidy for agricultural greenhouse gases by taxpayers for the low profit industry of pastoral farming. This joins the other large and hidden subsidies levied on tax and rate payers to support rural and state roads capable of sustained heavy agricultural and forestry trucks.
It was always going to happen but it still rankles that an attempt to get farming to at least confront the damage it causes to the climate is being put on hold.
National has this week chosen to smash through under urgency legislation that will increase unemployment and interest rates, reduce workers wages and increase the country’s emissions of greenhouse gasses.
National says it is not interested in meeting its financial obligations under the international Paris Agreement on climate change, signed by the previous National government. Reneging on the accord will have huge trade, diplomatic and reputational damage implications.
A damning report from Russel Norman on how the agricultural industry blocked climate action for the past two decades.
National has hatched on its attack line which we will hear about a lot over the next few months. But it may have a problem. Because the phrase “coalition of chaos” clearly applies to its leadership team.
The Government has done a deal with the owners of New Zealand Steel that will see the company replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace and will significantly reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
This good news bodes well.
The He Waka Eke Noa report recommends the introduction of farm-level split-gas levy on agricultural emissions. The anticipated savings are very small and reliant on Government proposals for the sector to reaching the Government target of 10% methane reduction. Are we really all in this together?
Quick quiz on which New Zealand politicians led well on climate action in the past 15 years. Which New Zealand town is in a climate emergency today? And how our focus and voting matters if we want to avert climate disaster.
what kind of climate action do we want?
While a core of farmers protested a few days ago against farm environmental regulation with long lines of tractors, the organised form of agribusiness, Maori and government working together have concluded that making a climate different isn’t possible.
Beyond the NGO emotion and singing and joyous arm waving, country leaders at COP 26 actually have to achieve stuff this week.
Last night’s Reid Research poll result suggests that the electorate is reverting back to a more conventional dynamic after the stratospheric heights that Labour enjoyed immediately post Covid elimination.
With record floods in Marlborough, half of Westport evacuated, disastrous flooding in Germany and the North East and the threat of record bushfires in the North West of the United States Mother Nature is passing rather cruel judgment on Groundswell NZ’s recent protest.
The Groundswell farmers movement want the new freshwater policy scrapped, the “ute tax” removed, lots of imported labour for farm work, parts of the ETS dumped the new Significant Natural Area policy dumped, the draft policy on indigenous biodiversity scrapped and Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill stopped. How likely is this?
As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.
It’s a brutal thing to propose more taxes and costs on business during our worst economic meltdown in a century. But yesterday the Government increased the cost of Carbon. But we need to do more.
The Australian Liberal Government has signalled a movement away from solar and wind power to untested technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement is calling for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.
It has been reported that NZ First will oppose the Green’s attempt to make the country’s car fleet more sustainable and that it may hold up proposed gun law changes designed to address the problems clearly shown by the Christchurch massacre.
The Zero Carbon Bill has been reported back largely unchanged. But National has a series of talking points that suggest it will not cooperate with the passage of the bill into law.
Last week the Embark 2019 conference involved corporations discussing what they can do to address climate change.
National Climate Change spokesperson Todd Muller has publicly stated that he is broadly supportive of the Government’s proposed EV incentive policy.
Simon Wilson has suggested in the the Herald this morning that for purely political reasons National will frustrate and stymie action on climate change
