How Is The NZ Government Tackling Adversities Of Climate Change?

Tuesday, 23 March 2021, 2:45 pm
Article: Kalkine

New Zealand is experiencing a multitude of climate change impacts, including melting glaciers, record-hot summers, and warming ocean temperatures.

• The government is pulling out all the stops to help the nation meet its carbon emission targets.
• Some emerging trends suggest that the country is ideally placed to hit the net-zero target by 2050.

Climate change is a long-standing issue in New Zealand, which is becoming more prominent with a decline in glacier ice volumes and rising average temperature. While the impacts of climate change are already being felt, few green shoots sprouting in the country have put it on track to meet its CO2 emission target – net-zero by 2050.

A report unveiled by Stats NZ and the Ministry for the Environment in October 2020 highlighted that the ongoing climate change could leave a profound impact on future generations. The report documented significant changes to the nation’s climate, including a rise in heatwave days, extreme rainfall and dry spell days, apparent change in seasons, increase in sea levels and fall in volumes of glacier ice.

Recognising the devastating impact of climate change, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared a climate emergency late in 2020, committing to a carbon-neutral government by 2025. Previously, in 2019, Ms Ardern also passed a bill to reduce all greenhouse gases to net-zero by 2050.

While the nation is quite a long way off from achieving its climate goals, few emerging trends suggest that it is moving in the right direction to hit a zero-emission target.

Government’s Climate Action Plan for Auckland

To meet the long-term challenges of housing & climate change, the Auckland Council and the government have budgeted a record NZD 31 million investment for Auckland. The tourism infrastructure package for New Zealand’s largest city will be rolled out over the coming ten years, which comprises half-price fares for the poor.

Acknowledging the rising transport emissions in Auckland, the government has decided to invest NZD 1.3 billion to foster public transport trips by 91 per cent and NZD 1.5 billion for cycling and walking initiatives. The investment will also fund a Community Connect trial, which will offer a 50 per cent discount on bus and train fares to Community Services Card owners.

The package is anticipated to result in a 13 per cent fall in per capita emissions and avert over 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions over the next decade in Auckland. The recently announced investment represents the biggest capital programme ever allocated for transport infrastructure and services in Auckland.

While giving a boost to public transport, the package seems to be the right step forward towards addressing the carbon emissions and traffic congestion problems in the city. If successful, the government intends to work with other councils to introduce the plan across the country.

First Auction of Emissions Allowances

In the transition to a low-carbon future, the nation recently reached a significant milestone with the first auction of emissions allowances.

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) and the New Zealand’s Exchange (NZX) unveiled the first auction for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) last week, which cleared at an impressive price of NZD 36. The auction saw a robust interest and direct participation from key industries of the economy, including manufacturing, transport, and forestry.

The NZ ETS is the main tool of the government to meet domestic and international climate change targets. The scheme entails participants to surrender emission units to the government to cover the pollution for which they are liable. Auctioning was introduced as a part of the reforms to this scheme last year to incentivise the country’s biggest polluters to invest in the climate-friendly shift.

The objective of the ETS is to lower emissions while making it costly to pollute. However, certain industries like agriculture are fully exempted from the scheme, making it less appealing. Besides, additional work is needed in the ETS framework as there is no overarching market governance structure for the scheme.

While these measures are working in line with the government obligations to achieve emission targets, further steps are required to tackle climate change and drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions. With the country is already having the technologies needed to meet climate goals, these objectives appear attainable with collective and decisive actions of the government.

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